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"AN  HOUR  LATER  PIE  SET  OUT  ALONE."  [Page  164. 

— "Girl  neighbors." 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS; 


OR,  THE 


OLD  FASHION  AND  THE  NEW. 


»/ 

By  SARAH  TYTLER^   y> 


ILLUSTRATED. 


NEW   YORK: 

A.  L.  BUfiT,  PUBLISHER. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE. 
The  Manor  House  at  Maidsmeadows  is  Taken 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Awkwardly  Twin  Character  of  the  Manor  House  and  the 
Cottage  at  Maidsmeadows 21 

CHAPTER  III. 

Pie  Stubbs  Makes  Her  "  Reconnaissance  " 40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Harriet  Cotton  on  the  Other  Side  of  the  Brook  Arrives  at  her 
Conclusions 62 

CHAPTER  V. 
An  Old-fashioned  Bee 82 

CHAPTER  VI. 
A  New-fashioned  Butterfly 101 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Common  Humanity  has  a  Voice  in  the  Question 118 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Result  of  Mrs.  Stnbbs'  Visit 138 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Broken  Ice 152 

CHAPTER  X. 
Firmer  Ground. .  177 


2138658 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PAGE. 
Isolation 206 

CHAPTER  XII. 
A  Lady  Nurse  from  an  Hospital ...  227 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
A  Lady  Cook  from  a  Cooking  School 243 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
A  Ladies' College 258 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   MANOK    HOUSE   AT   MAIDSMEADOWS   IS   TAKEN. 

IT  is  A  fact,  Mr.  Stubbs,  and  not  a  fancy,  the 
manor  house  is  taken.  The  board  is  down,  and  I 
met  Mrs.  Whittaker's  son,  who  is  with  Adams,  and 
he  told  me  the  decorator's  men  are  to  be  in  to- 
morrow." 

The  speaker  was  Mrs.  Stubbs,  the  wife  of 
Haderezer  Stubbs,  Esquire,  a  retired  post  office  offi- 
cial, who  had  ranked  somewhere  between  a  post- 
master-general and  a  postman.  For  the  last  ten 
years  he  had  lived  on  his  retiring  allowance,  oc- 
cupying the  cottage  which  was  a  semi-attached, 
rather  than  a  semi-detached  appendage  of  the 
manor  house  at  one  end  of  the  village  of  Maids- 
meadows. 

"  It  is  a  great  pity,"  said  Mr.  Stubbs  discon- 
tentedly. 

"  A  pretty  life  we'll  lead  for  the  next  six  months 


2  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

with  all  these  workmen  about,"  reflected  Mrs. 
Stubbs  calmly,  as  if  she  had  made  up  her  mind  to 
the  worst.  "  Lydia  is  not  too  steady  as  it  is,  when 
she  has  only  the  young  milkman  and  the  carrier 
who  lost  his  wife  last  summer,  and  the  butcher's 
and  baker's  boys  to  tempt  her.  Cook's  temper  will 
not  stand  more  worrying.  I  expect  if  any  of  these 
men  ask  her  to  melt  a  glue-pot  or  are  not  civil  to  her 
cat  she  will  give  me  warning  and  go  and  take  up 
house  with  her  sister,  as  she  is  always  threatening  to 
do.  Then  there  is  "William,  we  shall  have  him  tak- 
ing to  a  pipe,  though  he  is  barely  in  his  teens,  and 
setting  fire  to  the  pantry  or  the  stable  one  of  these 
nights." 

"  My  dear,  spare  us  farther  demoralization  on  the 
part  of  our  domestics,"  said  Mr.  Stubbs,  "  we  have 
more  need  to  think  of  ourselves.  Imagine  us  in 
such  close  quarters  with  an  utter  stranger — a  man 
who  may  be  a  ruffian,  a  forger,  or  a  house-breaker  in 
disguise !  I  believe  criminals  are  now  in  the  habit 
of  taking  country-houses,  in  which  they  can  conceal 
their  prey,  or  '  swag,'  as  they  are  supposed  to  call  it 
and  gull  their  neighbors,  while  the  burglars  sally 
forth  at  stated  intervals  to  commit  their  depredations. 
Or  the  tenant  of  the  manor  house  may  be  a  fast 
man,  with  a  fast  family  and  fast  company,  making 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  3 

day  and  night  hideous  with  their  riotous  behavior. 
Even  if  he  is  nothing  worse,  he  is  almost  certain, 
from  his  settling  in  a  quiet  country  place,  to  be  a 
man  with  a  hobby,  bees  or  butterflies,  or  cocks  and 
hens,  or  roses.  It  is  possible  for  roses  to  be  made 
to  grow  nothing  save  thorns  under  certain 
circumstances.  We  shall  not  dare  cry  out 
though  we  are  pricked  or  stung.  Don  and  Whiskers 
must  no  longer  run  about  at  their  pleasure  in  case 
they  do  mischief  to  the  manor-house  man's  treas- 
ures." 

Neither  Mr.  or  Mrs.  Stubbs  was  past  middle  age, 
but  while  she  was  a  fresh-colored,  broad  shouldered 
woman,  whose  hair  was  still  brown  and  abundant, 
her  carriage  erect,  her  step  elastic,  her  whole  strong 
physique  betraying  no  sign  of  failure  or  premature 
decay,  his  tall  figure  was  spare  and  stooping,  his 
face  lined,  his  hair  partly  gone,  and  what  was  left 
of  it  full  of  white  streaks.  She  looked  like  a  woman 
of  considerable  force  of  will  and  character,  who  had 
taken  life  composedly,  and  always  been  equal  to 
the  situation  which  presented  itself.  He  showed  on 
the  surface  a  bundle  of  nerves,  which  had  done  their 
business  effectually,  and  must  have  rendered  him  in 
his  more  active  days  a  considerable  trial  and  a 
source  of  improving  discipline  to  those  who  worked 


4  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

with  him  and  under  him.  In  the  middle  of  his  sen- 
sitiveness, which  is  generally  another  word  for  ir- 
ritability, there  was  a  twinkle  in  his  light  gray  eyes 
which  proved  that  he  was  also  something  of  a 
humorist,  capable  of  laughing  at  himself  and  his 
woes.  He  had  in  addition  fine  lines  about  the 
mouth  unspoiled  by  self-indulgence,  that  pointed  to 
a  nature  in  which  delicacy  of  mind  and  high  principle 
had  their  share. 

Mrs.  Stubbs,  who  was  free  from  her  husband's 
defects,  and  gave  a  correct  idea  of  herself  as  a  pillar 
of  strength  and  self-control  on  which  to  rest,  yet 
lacked  something  which  her  husband  possessed,  a 
quickness  of  generosity  and  sympathy,  a  keenness 
of  perception,  even  a  power  of  forbearance  in  ex- 
treme and  extraordinary  cases.  The  stronger  blade, 
admirably  adapted  for  daily  use,  was  less  finely  tem- 
pered and  less  effective  under  exceptional  condi- 
tions. 

The  room  in  which  the  couple  sat  was  an  old- 
fashioned  room — for  that  matter  the  cottage  was 
altogether  old-fashioned,  filled  with  somewhat  out- 
of-date  walnut  wood  and  chintz-covered  furniture, 
good  of  its  kind  and  in  perfect  order  and  preserva- 
tion, but  destitute  of  any  picturesque  attribute  or  of 
much  ornament  of  any  kind.  It  was  a  plain  though 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  5 

comfortable  sitting-room  for  a  family  in  the  Stubbs' 
station  of  life.  Perhaps  Mrs.  Stubbs  defined  its 
character  when  she  persisted  in  calling  it  by  the 
old-fashioned  name  which  her  mother  might  have 
used,  "  parlor,"  instead  of  drawing-room.  Some- 
how, in  its  respectability,  unqualified  substantiality, 
and  formal  neatness,  it  seemed  to  have  more  rela- 
tion to  the  mistress  than  to  the  master  of  the  house. 
It  was  easy  to  guess  that  he  had  a  den  of  his  own 
in  which  he  spent  a  considerable  part  of  his  time ; 
where  he  could  leave  his  books  lying  about  on  their 
faces,  his  inkstand  in  a  mess,  and  the  materials  for 
his  hobby — whatever  it  might  be,  he  was  pretty 
sure  to  have  one,  though  he  had  inveighed  against 
the  hobbies  of  other  men — scattered  anywhere  with- 
out risk  of  his  being  called  to  order  and  swept  and 
dusted  out  of  the  room. 

There  was  a  third  person  present  who  had  said 
nothing  as  yet,  who  had  not  indeed  been  brought 
up  to  put  in  her  word  first  and  talk  down  her  elders, 
but  this  silent  person  only  thought  the  more  because 
of  her  silence.  She  was  Pie  Stubbs,  the  only  daugh- 
ter of  the  house,  and  the  only  sister  of  an  only 
brother,  Haderezer  the  younger,  who  bore  his  fath- 
er's imposing  name,  and  was  absent  at  college.  Pie 
in  itself  does  not  sound  imposing,  though  in  fact  it 


6  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

stood  for  something  even  more  striking  than  Ilade- 
rezer.  Why  she  was  Sapientia  and  he  was  Hadere- 
zer  demands  a  very  few  words  of  explanation.  To 
begin  with,  the  son  and  daughter  were  simply  called 
after  the  father  and  mother,  who  might  in  their 
turn  have  been  called  after  their  father  and  mother 
in  the  strictest  orthodoxy,  for  Mrs.  Stubbs  at  least 
would  no  more  have  been  unorthodox  in  the  rules 
for  naming  her  children  than  in  any  of  the  other 
laws  of  her  life  of  law.  It  would  be  taking  both 
the  writer  and  reader  too  far  in  the  dim  distance  to 
investigate  into  the  origin  of  Iladerezer  and  Sapien- 
tia in  the  family  annals.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  in  a 
country  churchyard  not  a  score  of  miles  from  Lon- 
don the  names  will  be  found  engraved  on  a  joint 
tombstone.  It  is  a  memorial  to  a  worthy  husband 
and  wife  who  were  an  ordinary  English  couple,  dis- 
charging ordinary  social  duties  two  or  three  genera- 
tions back.  Moreover,  this  couple's  children  also 
bore  their  parents'  names  in  course  of  time.  Mrs. 
Stubbs  had  made  only  one  concession,  she  had  modi- 
fied the  stately  forms  of  address  to  her  children 
when  they  were  children.  There  would  have  been 
a  positive  impropriety  in  styling  a  senseless  mite  of 
a  baby  girl  "  Sapientia,"  hence  Pie  crept  into  the 
mouths  of  unguarded  relations  and  keepers,  though 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  7 

it  provoked  frivolous  strangers  to  slander  the  child 
by  asking  the  one  moment  if  her  temper  was  crusty 
and  the  next  whether  she  chattered  like  a  magpie  ? 
These  mistakes  rather  confirmed  Mrs.  Stubbs  in  the 
practice  than  deterred  her  from  it,  for  she  was  not  a 
woman  likely  to  be  driven  from  any  course  she  had 
chosen  to  adopt  because  of  the  adverse  opinions  or 
silly  jests  of  her  neighbors.  She  was  inclined  to 
regard  the  world  in  general  as  having  no  title  to 
interfere  in  her  private  affairs,  and  to  treat  the 
intruders  and  their  criticism  as  simply  beneath  her 
notice.  She  did  not  imagine  little  Pie  would  be  the 
worse  for  it.  If  she  were — that  is  if  she  suffered 
from  ridicule  and  turned  out  thin-skinned  when  she 
had  to  do  with  any  ludicrous  association — the  sooner 
she  grew  hardened  and  rose  to  a  fine  state  of  inde- 
pendent indifference  the  better  for  her. 

Neither  Pie  nor  her  brother,  who  was  two  years 
her  senior,  could  in  their  tender  youth  compass  the 
pronunciation  of  "  Haderezer,"  so  that  there  was 
an  absolute  necessity  for  some  change  in  his  case 
also.  "  Ezra "  was  thought  of,  but  Mrs.  Stubbs 
dropped  the  idea  as  savoring  of  irreverence,  partic- 
ularly where  children  were  in  question.  The  infant 
chiefly  interested  had  decided  summarily  against 
the  natural  diminutive  "Haddie,"  which  had  a\vk- 


8  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

ward  relations  in  his  mind  with  a  Scotch  fish  that 
sometimes  figured  in  its  cured  stage  at  his  father's 
breakfast  table.  Little  Haderezer  was  much  more 
touchy  about  being  laughed  at  than  Pie  had  ever 
shown  herself.  He  might  for  that  very  reason 
have  stood  still  more  in  need  of  the  discipline  which 
Mrs.  Stubbs  had  judged  the  best  thing  possible  for 
her  daughter.  But  Haderezer  was  a  young  lord  of 
the  creation,  a  distinction  which  had  its  full  weight 
with  his  mother,  all  the  more  so,  no  doubt,  because 
she  herself  belonged  to  the  Aveaker  sex.  He  was 
therefore  humored  in  this  matter,  and  allowed  to 
appropriate  "  Harry  "  as  an  alternative  for  Hader- 
ezer. "With  the  experience  of  a  public  school  and 
college  before  him,  his  selection  did  credit  to  his 
dawning  masculine  sense.  It  is  hardly  worth  while 
to  say  that  the  childish  names  had  stuck  to  the  boy 
and  girl,  already  in  the  last  stages  of  boyhood  and 
girlhood. 

Pie  was  like  her  mother,  brown-haired,  hazel- 
eyed,  fresh-colored,  well-developed,  with  only  here 
and  there  a  reminiscence  of  her  father  in  her  slen- 
der hands  and  feet,  the  fineness  rather  than  the 
abundance  of  her  hair,  the  thinness  of  her  nostrils, 
and  the  tendency  to  a  point  in  her  small  chin.  She 
was  a  maiden  fair  to  see  in  her  simple  youthful 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  9 

bloom — always  supposing  the  gazer  was  capable  of 
seeing  attractions  in  a  girl  who  wore  her  limited 
amount  of  hair  in  a  plain,  rather  prim  coil ;  whose 
frock  was  one  of  those  servieeable  ginghams  which 
are  again  worn  in  nondescript  brown  and  gray, 
made  in  another  revived  fashion  of  plain  skirt  and 
round  bodice  which  looked  almost  self-conscious  be- 
side the  complicated  draperies  of  the  modern  dress- 
maker. It  was  Pie's  mother,  not  Pie's  self,  who 
warmly  welcomed  these  revivals,  though  Pie  was 
content  to  accept  them,  and  to  own  that  they  were 
convenient  for  country  wear ;  as  to  town  wear,  she 
knew  nothing  of  it.  Pie's  pretty  feet  were  cased  in 
somewhat  stout  shoes,  with  heels  of  the  most  mod- 
erate dimensions.  But  here  her  own  will  and  pleas- 
ure came  into  play.  She  might  have  liked  another 
mode  of  doing  her  hair  which  would  not  have  ren- 
dered its  absence  of  quantity  so  conspicuous.  She 
might  have  preferred  to  have  in  her  frocks  some 
variety  of  neutral  tints  less  earthy  in  tone  than  the 
browns  and  grays,  some  pattern  or  no  pattern  less 
rectangular  than  checks  broken  or  unbroken.  But 
she  did  not  think  there  could  be  two  opinions  on 
shoes.  They  must  protect  the  feet,  and  they  must 
enable  one  to  walk.  Nothing  would  have  induced 
Pie  to  consent  to  what  she  had  been  taught  to  con- 


10  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

sider  the  degradation  of  deforming  her  feet  like  a 
Chinese  lady,  so  as  to  spoil  all  active  exercise  in 
walks  and  scrambles.  She  would  not  agree  to  place 
her  toes  at  the  end  of  a  steep  slope  from  her  instep, 
and  her  heels  in  close  proximity  to  that  instep.  She 
would  never  wish  to  wear  gloves  in  which  her  hands 
were  packed  so  tightly  that  they  could  not  bend, 
and  resembled  a  doll's  hands,  composed  of  kid  or 
silk  and  stuffed  with  bran.  Further,  Pie  would  well 
nigh  have  mounted  a  scaffold  where  she  might  have 
died  nobly  for  the  sake  of  God  and  her  conscience, 
and  the  love  of  her  friends  and  neighbors,  sooner 
than  perish  most  ignobly  by  pinching  her  waist  till 
her  body  resembled  an  hour-glass. 

As  to  meretricious  arts  of  powdering  and  paint- 
ing, penciling  the  eyebrows,  and  darkening  the 
eyes,  they  were  so  unknown  to  Pie  that  she  had  not 
even  dreamed  of  them,  and  if  she  could  have 
dreamed  of  what  she  had  never  seen  and  scarcely 
heard,  she  would  have  repudiated  the  dream  as 
wholly  unbecoming  and  positively  affronting. 

"  A  creature  breathing  thoughtful  breath, 
A  traveler  betwix  life  and  death." 

Pie  had  been  brought  up  to  think  an  enormous 
amount  of  attention  given  to  personal  appearance 
and  dress,  after  all  the  requirements  of  dainty 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  11 

propriety  had  been  scrupulously  fulfilled,  a  foolish 
expenditure  of  trouble  and  a  sinful  waste  of  time. 
True,  she  was  tempted  to  regard  her  mother's  rules 
on  such  points  as  a  little  arbitrary.  She  was  moved 
so  far  as  to  have  a  hankering  after  certain  modest 
toilet  vanities,  and  an  inclination  to  supply  them 
by  her  own  skill  and  ingenuity.  Nevertheless  Pie 
would  no  more  have  thought  of  exceeding  her  al- 
lowance, running  up  bills,  and  taking  the  lion's  share 
of  the  small  surplus  from  her  father's  yearly  in- 
come, than  she  could  have  been  guilty  of  robbing  a 
till  or  breaking  into  a  bank.  She  would  not  even  have 
proposed  to  devote  to  remodeling  her  dress  with 
her  own  hands,  and  studying  personally  what  be- 
came her  complexion,  the  principal  portion  of  the 
hours  which  she  had  been  accustomed  to  look  upon 
as  belonging  by  right  to  her  father  and  mother,  and 
after  them  to  Harry,  and  after  Harry  to  the  house- 
hold generally — next  to  her  classes  in  the  Sunday 
and  night  schools,  her  mother's  district,  the  poor  in 
the  parish. 

Pie  was  the  sole  girl  in  the  house,  her  brother 
was  from  home  the  most  of  his  time,  and  the  neigh- 
borhood was  not  very  largely  supplied  with  young 
people  in  the  Stubbs'  rank.  Even  if  it  had  been, 
Mrs.  Stubbs  did  not  approve  of  much  visiting  for  a 


12  OIHL  NETOHBOnS. 

young  girl,  while  the  family  was  not  rich  enough 
to  give  many  entertainments  to  their  neighbors.  Pie 
had  her  gayeties,  in  which  the  school  festivals,  the 
anniversary  party  at  the  cottage  hospital,  the  vicar's 
Christmas  teas  and  suppers  to  the  old  men  and 
women  of  Maidsmeadows  had  a  considerable  place, 
together  with  a  few  tennis  and  skating  parties, 
and  a  much  rarer  half-juvenile  dance  or  two — the 
last  mostly  when  Harry  was  at  home.  She  would 
have  laughed  at  the  bare  notion  of  occupying  her 
time  with  throwing  about  tennis-balls,  when  she 
was  not  dressing  or  riding,  or  paying  visits  or  read- 
ing novels.  We  have  heard  what  she  thought  of 
dressing,  and  we  have  been  told  that  she  did  not 
pay  many  visits.  As  to  a  horse,  she  had  none,  and 
though  she  had  been  taught  to  ride  in  the  course  of 
her  education,  she  had  no  opportunity  of  practicing 
the  accomplishment. 

Pie  did  read  novels  pretty  frequently.  It  is  hard 
to  live  in  this  generation  and  escape  from  what  is 
its  peculiar  literature  in  every  mental  and  moral 
shade.  But  she  had  read  under  the  unslumbering 
supervision  of  her  mother,  until  the  daughter's 
taste  and  judgment  could  be  trusted  not  to  prefer 
bad  pastry  to  good  bread,  or  strong  drink  to  strong 
meat  in  fiction.  But  neither  did  novels  usurp  Pie's 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  13 

days  any  more  than  her  nights.  She  had  been 
trained  to  put  the  best  tale  aside  in  order  to  do  her 
duty,  whatever  it  was,  and  return  to  the  story  with 
fresh  zest  and  redoubled  appreciation  of  its  merits 
because  of  the  temporary  abstinence. 

Pie  Stubbs  was  a  busy,  cheerful  girl,  very  sel- 
dom dull  or  even  listless,  yet  the  news  that  the 
manor  house  was  let  could  not  be  indifferent  to  her ; 
she  pricked  her  ears  with  a  lively  sensation  of 
expectation,  which  at  her  sanguine  age  took  an 
agreeable  instead  of  a  doleful  shape,  and  could  not 
even  be  damped  by  the  gloomy  prognostications  of 
her  father  and  mother.  She  happened  to  be 
engaged  in  plain  sewing,  for  the  Stubbses  kept  no 
sewing-maid,  and  Mrs.  Stubbs  disapproved  equally 
of  sewing-machines  and  shop-made  clothing.  There- 
fore both  mother  and  daughter  had  work-baskets — 
one  of  which  stood  at  Pie's  elbow  for  use  as  well  as 
for  show,  capable  of  containing  not  only  fancy  work, 
but  the  white  seam,  which  in  the  Stubbs'  house- 
hold was  not  banished  out  of  the  sitting-room,  but 
held  its  place  there  as  it  had  kept  its  ground  in 
every  parlor  in  the  days  of  Mrs.  Stubbs'  mother. 

"Don't  you  think  the  manor-house's  being  let 
might  turn  out  a  great  gain  to  us  ? "  said  Pie, 
glancing  up  from  her  work.  She  spoke  deprecat- 


14  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

ingly,  but  without  a  shade  of  apprehension,  for  it 
must  be  said  that,  however  much  she  had  been 
accustomed  to  respect  and  obey  her  parents,  she  had 
no  slavish  fear  of  them ;  the  relations  between  her 
and  them  were  of  a  peculiarly  frank,  affectionate 
the  nature.  Indeed,  there  was  a  considerable  ring  of 
mother's  independence  of  character  in  the  daughter. 
"  Suppose,"  Pie  went  on  persuasively,  "  our  new 
neighbors  are  particularly  nice,  and  end  by  being  an 
immense  acquisition  to  us." 

"  I  can  suppose  nothing  of  the  kind — all  the 
chances  of  life  are  against  it,"  said  Mr.  Stubbs 
cynically. 

"  Impossible,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  emphatically. 
"  The  best  we  can  hope  for  is  to  be  able  to  put  up 
with  each  other,  and  we  are  too  absurdly  near  for 
much  likelihood  of  that.  It  was  such  a  silly  mis- 
take of  old  Squire  Fuller's  when  he  was  the  young 
squire,  to  build  the  cottage  under  the  very  nose  of 
the  manor  house,  and,  as  if  that  were  not  bad 
enough,  to  make  all  these  nonsensical  foot-paths 
and  foot-bridges  across  the  brook,  and  these  wretched 
little  wicket-gates,  so  that  there  is  not  a  bit  of  the 
ground  of  either  house — not  even  the  kitchen-garden 
that  cannot  be  entered  quite  easily  from  the  grounds 
of  the  other.  There  can  be  no  privacy  or  freedom 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  15 

from  intrusion  at  any  point  when  both  houses  are 
let,  unless,  indeed,  the  respective  families  make  up 
their  minds  not  to  visit,  and  practically  close  all  the 
too  abundant  means  of  communication  between 
them." 

"  But  mother,"  objected  Pie  with  something 
slightly  hurt  in  her  voice  and  look,  "  you  know 
Squire  Fuller  built  the  cottage  for  his  mother  and 
sisters.  He  had  been  such  a  good  son  and  brother 
that  he  was  anxious  to  soften  to  them  as  much  as 
possible  the  pain  of  their  having  to  quit  the  manor- 
house  on  his  marriage." 

"  The  excellence  of  his  intentions  did  not  make 
his  act  less  foolish,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  sententiously. 
"  His  mother  and  sisters  ought  to  have  faced  the 
necessary  separation  from  the  beginning." 

"  But  was  it  more  necessary  than  he  made  it  ? " 
urged  Pie  wistfully,  her  excited  feelings  causing  a 
deeper  rose  color  to  rise  in  her  fresh  round  cheeks. 
"  Old  Patty  Luke  has  often  told  me  of  the  family. 
His  mother  was  a  widow,  and  had  been  used  to 
depend  upon  him,  her  only  son,  in  everything. 
One  of  his  sisters  was  a  great  invalid,  and  would 
have  missed  her  brother  so  much  if  they  had  re- 
moved to  any  distance.  They  were  all  very  fond 
of  each  other,  and  he  married  somebody  they  had 


16  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

known  all  their  lives,  a  particular  friend  of  his 
sisters." 

"  That  would  not  make  the  smallest  difference," 
said  Mrs.  Stubbs  promptly,  and  a  little  contemp- 
tuously; "indeed,  under  the  circumstances,  a 
stranger  might  have  been  better.  The  nearest, 
most  intimate  relations  generally  bear  worst  the 
strain  of  such  a  situation.  They  have  the  least 
protection  in  the  polite  and  ceremonious  barriers  of 
society." 

"  Well,"  said  Pie,  still  looking  unconvinced  and  a 
little  aggrieved,  "  I  remember  in  one  of  Jane  Aus- 
ten's novels  she  makes  a  good  deal  of  the  danger  of 
daily  visiting  between  the  great  house  and  the  cot- 
tage, as  a  fertile  source  of  petty  gossip  and  small 
grievances  on  either  side.  But  I  always  thought  it 
was  because  the  heads  of  the  family  and  the  son  and 
his  wife  were  not  very  sensible,  and  had  not  much 
to  occupy  their  minds.  I  fancied  too  that  the  ob- 
jection belonged  to  the  more  formal  habits  and 
peculiar  prudence  of  a  former  generation." 

"  My  dear  Pie,  one  cannot  be  too  prudent,"  her 
mother  interposed.  "  Discretion  is  the  soul  of  peace 
as  well  as  of  valor." 

"  Even  more  than  love  and  kindness  ?"  asked  Pie 
quickly. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  17 

"  I  did  not  say  so,"  denied  Mrs.  Stubbs  sharply, 
like  a  person  unjustly  accused,  "  and  the  Musgroves 
in  '  Persuasion,'  to  which  you  are  referring,  were 
quite  as  sensible  and  busy  as  the  generality  of  people. 
You  may  depend  upon  it,  Jane  Austen  is  a  safe  guide 
here." 

"  You  know  how  I  admire  Jane  Austen,"  said 
Pie,  still  more  aggrieved,  and  speaking  quite  re- 
proachfully, "  yet  I  do  think  she  is  hard  now  and 
then." 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  her  mother,  who  was  not  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  Pie's  thoughts,  which  were 
reaching  far  into  the  unknown  future,  and  busy  with 
Harry.  She  felt  sore  at  the  suggestion  that  the 
time  would  ever  come  when  it  would  be  wise  for  her 
and  all  his  friends  to  keep  at  a  respectful  distance 
from  him  and  his,  lest  offenses  should  arise  through 
near  neighborhood. 

"  No,  it  was  very  short-sighted  of  old  Squire  Ful- 
ler," repeated  Mrs.  Stubbs,  harping  on  the  original 
string.  "  It  was  just  like  a  man." 

"When  you  make  personal  observations  like  these, 
Mrs.  Stubbs,"  her  husband  observed,  "  I  always  feel 
that  your  vaunted  discretion  is  indeed  the  better 
part  of  valor,  and  that  it  is  time  for  me  to  beat  a 
speedy  retreat.  Come  along,  Pie,  and  help  me 


18  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

with  my  specimens."  For  geology  was  Mr.  Stubbs' 
hobby,  while  the  preservation  and  proper  arrange- 
ment of  his  specimens  on  their  shelves  and  in  their 
cases  formed  at  once  the  blessing  and  the  bane  of 
his  existence.  But  no  strata,  however  interesting, 
prevented  him  from  penetrating  what  was  in  Pie's 
mind,  and  being  unwilling  that  the  girl  should  be 
pained  by  anticipation.  "  The  matter  is  as  purely 
supposititious,"  he  said  to  himself  in  carrying  off  Pie, 
"  as  was  the  reasoning  of  the  timid  young  kitchen- 
maid  who  could  not  bear  to  look  at  her  chopping- 
axe,  in  case  she  should  marry  and  have  a  son,  and 

I 

he  should  present  her  with  a  grandson  of  a  rash 
and  reckless  disposition,  who  might  tamper  with 
that  very  axe  and  lose  an  arm  or  even  his  head  in 
the  encounter.  Mrs.  Stubbs  is  as  strongly  attached 
to  her  offspring  as  any  mother  need  be,  and  is  as 
little  likely  to  give  them  up  as  such  mothers  usually 
are  with  all  their  acquired  worldly  wisdom.  Why, 
even  I,  who,  I  am  convinced,  am  more  of  a  philo- 
sopher, as  becomes  one  of  the  men  she  was  pleased 
to  decry,  do  not  care  to  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  I  cannot  command  the  attendance  of  Harry 
and  Pie,  my  own  young  flesh  and  blood,  when 
Harry  will  not  give  us  even  the  fag-end  of  his  holi- 
days, but  be  only  an  occasional  visitor  according  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  19 

his  convenience  not  mine,  and  Pie  may  have  flown 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  and  owe  her  service  to 
another  and  not  to  me.  Bless  the  woman,  why 
should  she  forestall  evil  ?  That  is  just  like  a  woman, 
if  the  other  simple  resource  of  planting  his  deposed 
family  by  his  side  was  like  a  man ;  though,  to  do 
Pie's  mother  and  her  whole  sex  justice,  I  don't  sup- 
pose she  has  the  most  distant  conception  of  Pie's 
application  of  the  argument." 

"  Pie,  child,"  her  father  said  aloud  when  the  pair 
had  arrived  at  his  den,  the  little  room  full  of  wel- 
come cupboards,  and  itself  opening  into  the  garden, 
"  don't  imagine  I'll  let  you  off  from  dusting  these 
spars,  and  laying  bare  with  your  finest  needle  these 
fossils  from  the  sandstone  in  which  they  have  been 
embedded  for  ages,  though  the  evil  communications 
of  your  neighbors  at  the  manor  house  may  have 
corrupted  your  good  manners,  and  you  may  have 
grown  fine,  or  fast,  or  strong-minded,  and  may  have 
taken  it  upon  you  to  set  up  engagements  of  your 
own.  You  owe  this  to  me,  and  I'll  have  my  due,  I 
warn  you." 

"  All  right,  father,"  answered  Pie,  laughing  with 
recovered  good  spirits,  and  using  one  of  the  men's 
expressions,  which,  when  the  men  and  women  of 


20  QIRL  NK1GHBOR8. 

a  house  are  pretty  equally  balanced,  the  latter  are 
apt  to  acquire  in  right  of  their  belonging  to  the 
more  teachable  and  impressionable  of  the  two 
sexes. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  21 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    AWKWARDLY     TWIN    CHAEACTER    OF    THE     MANOR 
HOUSE   AND   THE   COTTAGE   AT   MAIDSMEADOWS. 

THERE  was  good  cause  for  the  disturbance  of  the 
elder  Stubbs'  minds  on  the  manor  house  being  let, 
and  for  Mrs.  Stubbs'  indignant  reflections  on  the 
imbecility  of  the  old  squire  of  the  place  in  planning 
and  putting  down  the  cottage  where  it  stood  in  re- 
lation to  the  other  house.  His  only  excuse  would 
have  been  a  direct  revelation  that  the  millennium 
was  at  hand ;  and  that  families  as  well  as  nations 
were  thenceforth,  however  trying  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  found  themselves,  to  live  in  perfect 
harmony.  For  even  if  he  had  received  a  super- 
natural intimation  that  he  and  the  members  of  his 
family  were  to  live  forever,  or  even  if  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  executing  a  deed  of  settlement  through 
which  the  great  house  and  the  small  were  to  be 
occupied  in  perpetuity  by  a  succession  of  family 
parties  in  two  divisions,  according  to  Mrs.  Stubbs' 
theory  these  extraordinary  provisions  for  the  future 


23  GIRL  NEIGHBORS 

would  only  have  intensified  the  mischief.  But  so 
far  from  any  of  these  refuges  presenting  themselves, 
the  millennium  had  not  come,  it  had  not  even 
heralded  its  distant  approach  by  any  remarkable 
evidence  of  brethren  and  nearest  neighbors  abiding 
together  in  unbroken  unity.  Squire  Fuller  and  his 
wife  with  his  mother  an1  sisters  had  long  been 
gathered  to  their  fathers.  Instead  of  other  genera- 
tions of  their  race  following  them  in  the  twin  houses, 
the  squire  had  survived  all  his  children.  The  manor 
house  and  the  cottage  had  first  passed  to  a  far-away 
cousin  of  the  name,  and  shortly  afterward  been  sold 
to  strangers.  The  two  houses  had  in  reality  never 
been  used  as  house  and  dowager  house  since  Squire 
Fuller's  day.  They  had  been  let  separately  to  ten- 
ants having  nothing  to  do  with  each  other,  where 
everything  had  been  tried  in  vain  to  undo  thoroughly 
the  efforts  of  the  founder  of  the  cottage  and  sever 
the  invidious  connection.  Indeed  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  dwellings  had  been  considered  so 
great  a  drawback  that  for  a  period  of  }Tears  the  fact 
that  one  was  tenanted  had  implied  the  tenantless 
condition  of  the  other. 

At  last  a  bold  enough  man  was  found  to  take  a 
lease  of  the  manor  house,  while  the  cottage  con- 
tinued, as  it  had  been  for  a  considerable  time,  in 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  23 

the  possession  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stubbs  and  their 
family.  It  was  about  to  be  seen  whether  two 
households  brought  into  such  tantalizing  proximity- 
could  survive  in  tolerable  amity,  and  whether  the 
sole  chance  for  so  desirable  an  end  was  the  one  ad- 
vocated by  Mrs.  Stubbs,  that  they  should  decline  to 
know  each  other. 

In  justice  to  Squire  Fuller  it  must  be  granted  that 
such  family  colonies  as  he  had  aspired  to  plant  were 
not  very  unusual  in  his  day,  when  there  was  no 
longer  in  the  fair  average  of  civilization  the  slight- 
est plea  for  kindred  drawing  together  in  order  to 
ensure  safety  from  the  violence  of  strangers.  Still 
people  remained  dependent  on  those  allied  to  them, 
because  the  seniors  especially  moved  much  more 
rarely  from  place  to  place,  formed  far  fewer  new 
associations,  and  clung  with  greater  tenacity  to 
early  ties.  The  heads  of  the  houses,  in  their  honest 
worth,  were  not  particularly  cultivated  or  liberal- 
minded.  They  had  not  many  available  means  of 
interest  and  entertainment.  They  were  quick  to 
miss  any  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed. 
They  demanded  companionship,  and  could  require 
it  from  the  members  of  their  families,  not  untinc- 
tured  with  the  deference  which  the  rest  of  the 
world  was  not  always  prepared  to  pay.  Whatever 


24  GIEL  NEIGHBORS. 

the  reason,  dowager  houses,  or  cottages  for  younger 
brothers  or  maiden  sisters  within  the  grounds  of  the 
grounds  of  the  mansion  house,  were  far  more  com- 
mon then  than  now. 

These  dependencies  differed  considerably  from 
the  houses  in  a  street  or  from  semi-detached  villas, 
which  continue  innumerable,  and  may  be  occupied 
either  by  strangers  or  acquaintances  for  a  dozen 
years  without  any  great  danger  of  a  pitched  battle, 
to  be  followed  by  a  deadly  irreconcilable  feud. 
For  in  the  last  design  which  man  has  originated 
the  cautious  qualification  of  the  arrangement  is  in- 
tended to  render  the  one  householder  as  independ- 
ent as  possible  of  the  other.  Each  is  meant  to 
draw  water  at  his  will  from  his  own  cistern,  and  sit 
under  his  own  vine  or  fig-tree  without  the  smallest 
obligation  implied  on  either  side.  Separate  en- 
trances and  exits  are  provided  for  as  absolutely 
indispensable.  If  it  can  be  contrived  that  the  par- 
allel domestic  movements  shall  be  rendered  invisi- 
ble to  all  save  the  special  performers,  by  high  walls, 
blind  windows,  and  ground  glass,  so  much  the 
better. 

Now,  the  old  social  arrangement  was  the  very 
opposite  of  all  this.  The  whole  intention  was  to 
facilitate  seeing  each  other  and  meeting  each  other 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  25 

perpetually  without  any  exertion  or  fatigue,  and  so 
well  was  the  intention  fulfilled  that  it  was  next  to 
impossible  to  evade  it.  A  speculative  man  might 
have  defied  his  brother  man  to  escape  him,  to  keep 
an  hour  out  of  his  sight  and  hearing,  unless  by 
shutting  himself  into  a  room  with  an  extensive  out- 
look, if  the  two  men  lived  in  the  manor  house  and 
the  cottage  at  Maidsmeadows.  Poor  old  Squire 
Fuller  had  been  only  too  intent  on  his  purpose  and 
too  successful  in  attaining  his  end.  From  the 
window  of  his  dressing-room  he  could,  in  life,  com- 
mand the  windows  of  what  had  been  his  mother's 
room,  and  that  of  his  favorite  sister.  From  the 
principal  sitting-rooms  of  both  houses  there  was  a 
fine  view — each  of  the  other's  front  door.  Nay, 
there  was  a  business  and  gun-room  in  the  manor 
house  which  so  corresponded,  in  the  matter  of 
opposite  lights,  with  a  housekeeper's  room  and 
pantry  and  a  garret  in  the  other,  that  it  appeared 
as  if  the  latter  had  been  planned  with  the  very 
design  of  being  raked  fore  and  aft,  as  sailors  say,  by 
the  former.  The  old-fashioned  gardens  and  shrub- 
beries were  contiguous,  writh  the  prevailing  motive 
that  neither  lilac  nor  thorn,  artichoke  nor  asparagus- 
beds  should  act  as  a  screen,  or  intercept  the  full 
knowledge  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  one  from 
the  stroller  in  the  other. 


26  01HL  XR1GHBORS. 

Since  the  Fullers'  day,  though  strenuous  efforts 
had  been  made  to  divorce  the  two  houses,  they  had 
not  been  long  enough  occupied  contemporaneously 
for  the  most  desperate  endeavor  to  overthrow  to 
any  great  extent  the  original  laying-out  of  the  re- 
spective grounds.  Somebody  had  stuck  in  a  surly 
row  of  Scotch  firs  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  a  file 
of  Jack's  bean-stalks.  But  though  the  firs  had  got 
time  enough  to  grow  long  after  their  planter  was 
gone,  they  had  not  agreed  with  the  soil.  Only  one 
or  two  had  arrived  at  the  rank  of  trees,  standing  far 
apart,  falling  to  different  sides,  and  twisting  them- 
selves fantastically,  more  like  frames  to  landscape 
vignettes  than  an  obscuring  barrier. 

All  the  time  there  was  a  brook  running  between 
the  grounds,  but  this  Squire  Fuller  had  crossed  and 
recrossed  with  rustic  bridges,  pointedly  terminating 
each  of  the  winding  walks,  which  were  conspicuous 
features  in  the  landscape-gardening  of  the  day.  In 
the  middle  of  the  widest  bridge  the  infatuated  man, 
had  actually  built  a  couple  of  arbors  back  to  back, 
as  an  expression  of  some  simple,  sly  jest  of  his  own  ; 
for,  while  the  one  arbor  belonged  to  the  manor  house 
and  the  other  to  the  cottage,  every  word  said  in  the 
one  could  be  heard  in  the  other,  and  by  pulling  aside 
the  twigs  of  clematis  and  woodbine  a  pair  of  faces 
could  be  brought  into  closest  contact. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  27 

It  was  certain  that  while  the  main  object  had 
been  to  furnish  access  from  one  establishment  to  the 
other  at  every  point,  a  secondary  intention  had  been 
put  in  force.  This  was  to  multiply  indefinitely 
those  circumscribed  winding  walks,  so  that  the  ladies 
of  the  respective  families  might  have  sufficient  walk- 
ing exercise  within  their  own  and  their  son's  and 
brother's,  or  their  mother's  and  sister-in-law's, 
sheltered,  cultivated  domain,  without  having  to  pass 
through  the  village,  and  pace  the  dusty  or  muddy 
highway  or  the  rough  farm  lanes.  The  last  locali- 
ties were  viewed  with  reserve  as  hardly  fit  resorts 
for  the  essence  of  what  was  considered  feminine  and 
ladylike  in  a  past  generation. 

When  only  the  one  house  was  tenanted  its  occu- 
pants had  so  far  profited  by  this  wealth  of  walks 
on  both  sides  of  the  brook.  Half  of  them  were 
largely  let  alone  ;  but  though  these  had  lost  much 
of  their  trimness,  in  anoth  er  light  they  were  not 
spoiled  by  some  of  the  old-fashioned  shrubs  having 
been  suffered  to  spread  and  hang  about  in  unpruned 
luxuriance.  The  benefit  of  the  manor  house  grounds 
had  been  long  enjoyed  by  the  Stubbses  as  dwellers 
in  the  cottage.  Pie  had  been  wont  to  wander  as  un- 
checked on  the  one  side  of  the  brook  as  on  the 
other.  She  had  fallen  into  the  mistaken  practice  of 


28  Qim.  NEIGHBORS. 

acting  as  if  she  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  manor 
house  as  with  the  cottage  honeysuckle  and  hollies, 
and  of  helping  herself  not  more  freely  to  her  own 
lilies  and  violets,  than  to  those  which  came  up  year 
after  year,  unbidden  and  uncared  for,  in  the  un- 
tended  garden-beds.  For  Maidsmeadows  was  at  too 
great  a  distance  from  any  large  town  to  render  the 
lingering  old-fashioned  flowers  worth  the  labor  of 
the  market-gardener,  who  still  reared  peas  and  pota- 
toes on  the  old  soil,  and  looked  after  what  was  left 
of  the  jargonelle  pears  and  ribstone  pippins,  the 
peaches  and  nectarines. 

Pie  almost  felt  as  if  the  weather-stained,  two- 
storied,  stone-roofed  manor  house  belonged  to  the 
Stubbses,  so  familiar  was  she  with  its  outside  fea- 
tures, though  she  had  only  peeped  within  its  half- 
closed  shutters  and  walked  once  or  twice  through 
its  unfurnished  rooms.  The  manor  house  was  much 
the  larger  building,  and  had  been  rather  a  stately, 
imposing  mansion  in  its  prime.  At  the  same  time 
Pie  greatly  preferred  the  cottage,  which  was  quaint 
in  its  irregularities,  its  queer  contrivances,  and 
small  copies  of  the  rain-water  barrel,  the  shed  for 
the  wood,  the  tool-house,  as  they  existed  in  their  en- 
larged version  at  the  bigger  house;  while  the  cot- 
tage was  home-like,  cozy,  snug  in  the  trimness  of 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  29 

its  creepers,  the  brightness  of  its  windows,  the  gen- 
eral excellent  order  which  Mrs.  Stubbs  never  suf- 
fered to  be  upset. 

Pie  thought  she  would  not  have  minded  so  much 
the  circumstance  of  the  manor  house's  falling  into 
the  hands  of  strangers,  if  only  she  and  hers  and  they 
and  theirs  could  have  been  friendly  together,  which 
her  father  and  mother  had  at  once  reckoned  an  im- 
possibility. In  addition  to  the  natural  youthful 
hankering  after  a  mixture  of  novelty  and  sociality, 
it  seemed  to  Pie  such  a  piteous  mockery  that  there 
should  be  a  final  rejection  and  sour  closing  up  of  all 
old  Squire  Fuller's  elaborate  outlooks  and  by-roads. 
Why,  there  had  even  been  a  covered  way,  for  there 
was  a  remnant  of  a  miniature  pleached  alley,  meeting 
another  at  a  roofed  bridge.  The  roof  of  the  bridge 
was  ruinous,  letting  in  both  sun  and  rain,  and  there 
were  a  good  many  holes  and  breaks  in  the  dimin- 
utive alleys  from  the  fall  and  removal  of  trees.  But 
when  all  was  entire,  it  was  said  to  have  been  meant 
that  the  ladies  of  the  two  houses,  especially  old 
madam  and  Miss  Mary  who  was  sickly,  should  go 
to  and  fro  on  a  wet  day,  without  so  much  as  the 
call  to  buckle  on  clogs  and  put  up  umbrellas.  The 
original  author  of  all  these  devices  might  have  been 
rash  and  saguine,  he  might  not  have  taken  into  con- 


30  GIUL  NEIGHBORS. 

sideration  the  weakness  and  short-comings  of  hu- 
man nature,  on  the  moral  as  well  as  the  physical 
side,  but  there  had  been  such  a  wealth  of  homely 
tenderness  in  the  lavish  provision  for  friendliness, 
that  Pie,  though  she  was  shrewd  for  her  years,  could 
not  bear  to  see  it  utterly  wasted  and  despised. 

She  had  heard  a  good  deal  of  the  old  Fuller  fam- 
ily from  the  octogenarian  Patty  Luke,  who  had  been 
a  young  girl  in  their  service  before  the  squire  mar- 
ried, when  marriage  was  in  his  head,  and  he  had 
built  the  cottage  to  be  sure  that  his  mother  and  sis- 
ters would  be  comfortable,  and  to  keep  them  near 
him  and  his  young  wife.  Patty,  like  most  old 
ladies,  enjoyed  recounting  the  experience  of  her 
youth.  She  was  proud  of  remembering  what  a 
great  part  of  the  world  around  her  had  either  never 
known  or  had  altogether  forgotten.  Pie's  being  on 
the  spot  had  lent  a  greater  vividness  to  Patty's 
reminiscences.  "  Bless' e,  yes,"  Patty  would  say,  "  I 
do  see  it  all  as  if  it  had  happened  but  yesterday. 
The  young  squire  as  were  manful  and  kind,  a  strap- 
ping man  six  feet  tn*o  in  his  stocking  soles,  tramping 
out  and  in,  and  allers  coming  to  old  madam,  his 
mother,  with  the  tale  of  what  he  was  doing,  and  to 
ask  her  what  she  thought  and  if  she  were  pleased. 

" '  That  will  suit  you,  won't  it,  mother  ? '  he  would 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  31 

ask,  anxious  like  to  meet  her  views.  *  You'll  never 
miss  this  corner  for  your  chair  or  that  window  for 
your  table  since  I've  caused  the  men  to  run  up  the 
marrow  of  them  at  the  cottage,  only,  if  anything, 
freer  from  draughts,  and  easier  got  at.  And  May' 
—he  would  call  Miss  Mary,  *  May,'  as  he  had  done 
when  they  two  were  young  things,  though  the  rest 
of  the  family  called  her  '  Molly  ' — '  May  will  have 
her  bedroom  next  yours  on  the  drawing-room  floor, 
so  that  she  need  not  be  tried  by  the  stair  except 
when  she  goes  down  to  dinner,  or  when  she  is  bound 
for  a  little  walk,  or  to  take  a  turn  with  you  in 
her  donkey  chair.  But  I  expect  she'll  be  getting 
quite  strong  one  of  these  days  and  not  minding 
stairs,  long  ere  Otway  comes  back.'  For  Miss  Mary 
had  been  engaged  to  be  married  to  a  gentleman  as 
was  a  sailor  before  she  took  the  bad  illness  from 
which  she  never  altogether  recovered.  'You'll 
never  feel  dull  and  lonesome,'  the  squire  would  say, 
'  for  me  and  Kitty ' — that  was  young  madam  as  was 
coming — 'will  be  running  in  and  out,  and  looking 
you  up  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  as  I  trust  you  will 
be  able  to  look  us  up  for  this  many  a  year.  There 
can  be  no  fatigue  for  you  and  May,'  he  said,  *  when 
we're  all  within  a  stone's-throw  of  each  other.  Why, 
mother,  you  can  cross  from  your  herb-beds  into 


32  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

ours  without  going  back  to  the  main  path,  and 
when  you  run  out  of  thyme  or  lavender  there  is 
ours  at  your  hand  and  your  service  the  same  as  ever. 
If  you  like  you  will  see  me  mounting  for  the  hunt 
every  hunting  morning,  and  if  you  want  me  at  any 
time  you  have  but  to  give  me  a  wave  and  I'll  be 
with  you  in  a  trice.'  Eh  !  but  the  young  squire  was 
thoughtful  for  his  mother  and  sisters,  and  bent,  if  it 
were  in  mortal  man's  power,  that  they  should  not 
be  great  losers  by  his  marriage." 

"  And  did  his  schemes  all  work  well,  Patty  ? 
Was  the  double  household  as  happy  as  he  meant 
it  to  be  ?  "  Pie  would  ask  doubtfully,  for  satirical 
tongues  had  said  the  contrary,  though  it  belonged 
to  the  gossip  of  a  past  generation. 

"  I  dunno,  Miss  Stubbs,"  Patty  would  say  reluc- 
tantly, echoing  Pie's  doubt;  for  she  was  a  nice 
woman,  with  a  kindly  tongue  as  a  rule,  loyal  to  the 
patrons  of  her  youth,  and  not  relish  ing  their  discom- 
fiture after  the  fashion  of  more  sardonic  domestics. 
"  Ma'ppen  they  were  as  happy  as  men  and  women 
could  be  in  this  here  world  of  changes  and  crosses. 
The  young  folks  did  run  in  and  out  of  each  other's 
houses  and  share  a  deal  of  their  good  times  and  gay 
doings  for  a  time.  They  all  joined — I  can  say  that 
for  them — in  paying  a  heap  of  respect  to  old  madam 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  33 

as  her  son  thought  so  much  on,  which  were  her 
due. 

"  The  first  mischief,"  Patty  went  on  to  admit 
with  a  sigh,  "  were  done  by  some  friends  of  young 
madam's  as  came  from  a  distance  and  paid  her  a 
long  visit.  Everything  was  strange  to  them,  and 
mebbe  they  did  not  mean  no  harm  ;  but  they  made 
remarks,  and  said  as  how  they  wouldn't  never  sub- 
mit to  this,  or  they  wouldn't  never  agree  to  that 
if  they  were  the  manor  house  or  the  cottage  family. 
Them  visitors  carried  tales  as  they  didn't  ought  to, 
them  as  were  gentlefolks  and  should  have  knowed 
better,  and  backed  the  different  servants  when  they 
fell  out. 

"  Then  young  madam  was  bound  up  in  her  first 
baby — and  a  fine  child  as  ever  was  born  he  were, 
though  she  lived  to  see  him  in  his  coffin  afore  he  had 
left  school.  Who  could  blame  her  ?  But  she  would 
have  him  brought  up  in  her  new-fangled  way,  and 
she  was  jealous  if  his  grandmother  or  his  aunts,  as 
were  that  fond,  too,  of  the  first  child  among  them, 
if  they  said  a  word  for  their  way.  She  resented 
even  where  the  bairn's  father  would  have  a  voice,  as 
was  his  right,  in  his  own  child's  rearing,  and  was 
persuaded  that  the  ladies  at  the  cottage  were  at  the 
bottom  of  the  squire's  interference. 


34  OIKL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Deary,  deary  me,  miss,  how  sparks  of  trouble 
will  rise  from  nowt,  or  else  what  should  have  brought 
nowt  but  a  blessing  in  its  train." 

"  And  were  the  differences  never  got  over  ? "  said 
Pie,  knowing  all  the  time  how  it  turned  out.  "  Was 
the  family  sundered  like  this  by  no  fault,  unless  it 
was  by  a  small  error  of  judgment,  or  an  excess  of 
natural  affection  ? " 

"Well,  they  were  never  like  so  frankly  cordial 
after  that  there  first  visit  of  young  madam's  rela- 
tions. There  was  no  quarrel,  for  they  had  respect 
for  themselves  and  one  another,  but  there  was  a 
stiffness — and  old  madam  did  not  live  as  long  as  the 
squire  had  counted  on,  nor  poor  Miss  Mar}7,  as  he 
was  so  fond  on,  that  had  her  lover  drowned  in  the 
wreck  of  his  ship,  and  so  she  lost  her  chance  of  ever 
throwing  off  her  weakness  and  growing  a  hale  and 
hearty  woman,  a  happy  wife  and  mother  with  the 
best.  After  that  Miss  Dorothy  married  and  settled 
in  the  north,  and  though  Miss  Fuller  and  Miss  Joan 
as  never  married,  always  lived  part  of  the  year  at 
the  cottage  their  brother  had  built  for  them,  they 
divided  their  time  between  Maidsmeadows  and  their 
sister's  neighborhood,  where  they  got  rooms  to  their 
mind  in  a  farmhouse.  They  came  to  take  deeper 
root  there  than  here,  as  was  not  to  be  \vondered  at 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  35 

since  her  children  all  lived  and  grew  up  around 
them,  while  the  squire's  never  saw  their  teens — save 
one,  she  as  was  thought  to  favor  Miss  Mary,  and 
she  passed  away  before  she  reached  her  twenties. 
Eh,  but  it  was  sore  on  the  squire,  and  still  sorer  on 
madam,  as  were  a  warm  tempered  and  oonreason- 
ing  kind  of  lady,  and  could  never  abide  the 
sight  of  her  blooming  nephews  and  nieces,  that  had 
lived  and  throve  when  her  five  bairns  had  pined 
and  perished  most  like  bits  of  flowers  in  a  strong 
draught." 

"  So  Squire  Fuller  might  as  well  have  spared  all 
his  short  cuts  and  little  bridges,  and. the  opposite 
windows  which  looked  into  each  other,"  said  Pie, 
with  a  rueful  smile. 

"  ^ay,  now,  do  not  be  so  fast,  miss,  if  you  will 
forgive  the  freedom,"  said  Patty  quickly.  "The}*" 
served  their  turn  as  long  as  they  was  wanted. 
There's  One  aboon  our  heads  as  would  see  to  that, 
I  can  trussen  that  far.  And  weren't  young  madam 
hersen  as  thankful  as  thankful  could  be,  twice  in  her 
married  life,  that  she  hadn't  to  go  round  by  the 
carriage  road  between  the  two  houses?  The  one 
time  was  when  little  Master  Sam  was  taken  with 
a  fit  in  cutting  his  last  tooth  as  his  mother  was 
a-carrying  him  in  her  anns  in  the  shrubbery.  Off 


36  QIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

she  flew  like  a  wild  thing,  holding  him  tight,  across 
the  nearest  bridge  to  old  madam,  whom  she  had 
seen  a  minute  before  looking  at  her  damson  trees. 
Madam  took  the  bairn  from  his  mother,  whipped 
one  of  her  kid  muffatees  between  the  teeth  he  had 
got,  that  his  tongue  might  be  safe,  and  had  him 
straight  into  a  hot  bath  in  the  cottage,  and  brought 
round,  long  before  the  doctor  could  be  sent  for.  The 
other  time  was  when  Miss  Mary  read  in  the  news- 
paper the  news  of  the  wreck  of  her  sweetheart's 
ship,  with  the  loss  of  all  hands." 

"  As  you  have  told  me,  Patty,"  said  Pie,  softly, 
recalling  the  far-off  tragedy,  which,  as  it  had  to  do 
with  youth  and  love  and  sorrow,  and  had  been  acted 
on  the  very  spot  where  Pie's  e very-day  life  was 
spent,  had  a  special  hold  on  the  girlish  imagina- 
tion. 

Patty  was  nothing  loth  to  tell  the  story  once 
again.  "  Eight  you  are,  miss,  and  I  have  often 
thought  and  spoken  on  it.  It  was  in  the  early  sum- 
mer, and  Miss  Mary  was  lying  resting  after  dinner 
on  the  settee  in  her  own  room,  before  the  open 
window  that  had  the  lily  of  the  valley  bed  aneath  it, 
as  the  squire  made  with  his  own  hands  to  pleasure 
his  sister." 

The  lily  of  the  valley  was  there  still,  as  Pie  knew. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  3? 

for  it  came  up  every  spring,  and  she  had  taken  care 
that  it  should  not  be  disturbed. 

"  All  the  famity,  even  to  old  madam  and  the  serv- 
ants, were  out  in  the  hayfield  beyond  the  paddock, 
where  the  squire  was  having  the  first  hay-making  of 
the  season.  Young  madam  had  come  to  sit  a  little 
with  Miss  Mary,  and  had  brought  her  the  news- 
paper and  given  it  to  her  without  looking  it  over, 
and  sure  enough  the  bit  that  at  once  caught  Miss 
Mary's  eye  was  that  about  the  wreck  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  with  the  loss  of  all  on  board.  She  knew  that 
Captain  Otway  was  with  his  ship,  so  she  just  gave  a 
kind  of  gasp  and  a  strangled  cry,  and  her  fell  back 
in  a  dead  faint.  Young  madam  lifted  her  sister  up 
as  well  as  she  was  able  and  screeched  for  help,  so 
that  they  heard  her  plain  in  the  hayfield.  The  squire 
did  not  take  two  steps  when  one  served  him.  He 
ran  so  fast,  and  \vould  have  taken  the  bridge  by  the 
mulberry  bush  in  a  flying  leap,  but  he  came  down 
with  his  whole  weight  upon  the  end  of  the  plank, 
and  split  it  right  up  with  the  heel  of  his  boot.  All 
the  time  madam,  his  wife,  was  praying  aloud  for 
him  to  come  quick,  because  she  thought  Miss  Mary 
would  have  died  in  her  arms.  But  when  she  heard 
her  brother's  voice  she  revived  and  sat  up,  and  tried 
to  tell  him  what  had  happened.  Natheless  she 


38  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

had  gotten  her  death-blow,  though  her  lived  on 
through  the  summer  into  the  autumn.  Young 
madam  did  what  she  could  to  make  up  for  her  rash- 
ness. To  do  her  justice  it  was  not  what  she  saw  to 
be  her  duty  that  she  failed  in,  and  if  she  liked  any- 
body that  was  a  drop's  blood  akin  to  the  squire,  after 
they  were  wed — and  she  thought  he  should  belong 
to  her  alone — it  were  old  madam  and  Miss  Mary. 
There  was  never  a  morning  that  summer  the  squire 
was  not  over  by  the  shortest  way  to  ask  for  Miss 
Mary  the  first  thing,  before  he  tasted  bite  or  sup. 
He  would  sit  hours  at  a  time  on  her  bed,  seeking  to 
cheer  her  up.  If  she  were  a  grain  worse,  Miss 
Dorothy  or  Miss  Joan  would  hang  out  her  handker- 
cher  and  he  was  with  them,  as  he  had  said,  '  in  a 
trice.'  Day  and  night  he  kept  a  loving  watch  on 
the  cottage,  and  it  were  not  with  his  will  that  there 
ever  came  a  coolness  and  a  slackness  in  the  traffic 
between  the  two  houses.  Well-a-well,  Miss  Stubbs, 
there  is  an  end  to  everything  under  the  sun." 

"  So  there  is,  Patty,  and  there  must  be  an  end  to 
my  call,"  said  Pie.  She  had  come  to  see  Patty  in 
the  cottage  the  old  lady  still  kept  clean  and  tidy, 
and  to  beg  a  sitting  of  eggs  from  her  famous  hen,  a 
genuine  "  Plymouth  Rock." 

"  Nay,  now?  that  is  very  quick  and  perky  in  you. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  30 

miss,  but  you  are  too  young  a  lady  to  lay  the  truth 
to  heart.  The  vicar  he  do  say  our  mortal  life  is  but 
the  beginning  of  a  better,  which  the  Lord  grant  for- 
ever and  ever,  is  my  humble  petition." 


O1RL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PIE    STUBBS   MAKES    HER    "RECONNAISSANCE." 

PIE  MIGHT  be,  and  was,  the  busiest,  most  intelli- 
gently interested  and  occupied  of  girls,  the  center 
of  a  crowd  of  avocations  and  obligations — the 
machinery  of  which,  thanks  to  Mrs.  Stubbs,  went  on 
as  regularly  as  clock-work — that  left  her  little  time 
for  wearying  or  even  for  dreaming  to  any  alarming 
extent ;  still  the  country  is  the  country  and  girls 
will  be  girls.  The  whole  village  of  Maidsmeadows 
— including  the  vicarage,  the  surgery,  the  post 
office,  the  saw-mill,  which,  happily  for  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  the  place,  broke  in  upon  the  main 
street,  and  was  kept  going  by  the  same  brook 
which  divided  the  manor  house  from  the  cottage, 
the  dressmaker's,  the  school,  the  wheelwright's,  the 
forge — was  keenly  exercised  by  the  arrival  of  the 
newr  family  to  live  at  least  a  part  of  the  year  at  the 
manor  house,  and  none  of  the  eager  discussers  of  the 
event  was  more  alive  to  its  importance,  especially 
where  she  was  concerned  than  Pie  Stubbs. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  41 

True,  Pie's  father,  and  above  all  her  mother, 
whose  word  was  law  in  social  matters,  had  decreed 
that  the  Stubbses  should  be  guilty  of  the  grossest 
inhospitality  to  their  new  neighbors  by  taming 
their  backs  and  refusing  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  strangers.  "  It  is  not  that  I  think  they 
will  take  what  is  not  their  own,  or  will  begin  by 
borrowing  our  hair  and  tooth  brushes,  like  people 
in  the  bush  or  the  backwoods,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
candidly.  "  I  hear  Mr.  Cotton  is  a  rich  London 
merchant,  and  no  doubt  needs  nothing  that  we  have, 
on  the  contrary  possesses  a  great  deal  that  we  have 
not.  It  is  because  I  do  not  wish  to  have  my  serv- 
ants tampered  with,  or  fretted  and  gulled  into 
throwing  up  their  places.  I  have  no  desire  to  see 
Pie's  head  turned  and  perhaps  her  temper  soured  by 
constant  familiarity  with  the  ways  of  a  rich,  luxur- 
ious household.  I  don't  deny  it  has  been  a  tolerably 
sensible  girl's  head  hitherto,  but  it  is  better  to  keep 
it  out  of  temptation.  It  is  not  at  all  probable  that 
people  in  such  different  circumstances  would  be 
companionable  where  we  were  concerned.  In  fact 
we  want  no  other  company  than  what  we  have 
already,  and  if  we  had  it,  and  it  were  ten  times 
better  worth  than  I  suspect  it  is,  it  would  be  dearly 
bought  by  the  complete  sacrifice  of  our  privacy. 


4$  GIRL 

Believe  me,  Pie,  there  is  only  one  alternative — not 
to  know  these  people  at  all.  Very  likely  they  are 
birds  of  passage,  and  won't  stay  long  anywhere. 
Certainly  it  is  the  kind  of  establishment  which  goes 
up  to  town — where  Mr.  Cotton  must  have  his  office 
or  his  warehouse — after  Christmas,  runs  abroad  at 
Easter,  repairs  to  the  seaside  in  June  or  July,  is  off 
to  the  moors  in  August,  and  finds  no  partridge, 
hare,  or  pheasant  shooting  worth  cultivating  here 
after  October." 

"  But,  mother,"  Pie  made  the  despairing  protest, 
"  it  seems  so  rude  and  unfriendly,  positively  unchris- 
tian." 

"  Never  mind  what  it  seems,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
imperturbably,  "  we  know  why  it  is.  If  the  people 
are  worth  their  salt,  they  too  will  guess  and  will 
acquiesce,  if  they  do  not  aid  and  abet  us.  How  can 
it  be  inhospitable  and  unchristian  " — for  these  words 
pricked  the  worthy  woman's  conscience  a  little — 
"  when  they  can  want  nothing  that  we  have  to  give 
them!  It  might  have  been  different  if  things  had 
been  all  the  other  way,  if  it  had  been  possible  for 
the  new  people  to  represent  some  poor  family  taking 
refuge  beside  us  in  their  distress.  Even  then  it 
would  have  been  a  '  sell,'  as  Harry  says,  and  a  great 
bore.  But  that  is  all  nonsense.  The  rent  of  the 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  43 

manor  house  is  nearly  double  ours,  and  I  hear  Mr. 
Cotton  is  doing  a  great  deal  for  the  house,  which  he 
has  only  on  lease,  and  that  not  a  long  one,  pulling 
the  place  to  pieces  and  refitting  it  in  the  most  ex- 
pensive fashion,  as  these  people  always  do." 

"  What  people  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  Stubbs,  looking 
up  from  the  book  he  had  been  reading,  and  catching 
his  partner  up.  "  I  thought  you  knew  nothing 
about  them." 

"  Neither  do  I,"  she  answered  unmoved,  "  but  they 
are  rich  people — at  least  they  have  begun  by  acting 
as  if  they  did  not  kno\v  what  to  do  with  their 
money.  To  pay  Keziah  Clouston  three  shillings  a 
day  for  simply  washing  the  floors,  and  to  have 
painters  down  from  London  to  pick  out  the  roofs  ! 
That  is  enough,"  she  said  conclusively. 

Pie  had  to  resign  herself  to  the  inevitable  with  a 
faint  hope  of  something  turning  up — that  last  straw 
of  those  who  have  nothing  else  to  depend  upon — to 
cause  her  mother  to  modify  her  decree.  But  any- 
how there  was  the  seeing  and  hearing  a  good  deal 
of  the  Cottons  when  they  came  to  occupy  the  manor 
house,  and  the  receiving  the  willing  report  of  luckier 
neighbors  less  chary  as  to  the  corrupting  contagion 
of  wealth  and  pleasure  and  the  invasion  of  their  re- 
tirement. 


44  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  had  begun  by  going  so  far  as  to  say 
she  did  not  care  to  see  or  hear  anything  of  the 
Cottons,  with  whom  she  meant  to  have  nothing  to 
do,  though  the  two  families  were  compelled  to  dwell 
in  closest  contact.  She  trusted  the  Cottons  would 
not  become  a  topic  of  unimproving  conversation  at 
the  cottage  as  well  as  the  subject  of  the  tittle-tattle 
of  the  village.  But,  possibly  because  there  are  limits 
even  to  virtuous  abstinence,  she  let  this  extreme  re- 
striction drop.  In  fact  it  was  Mrs.  Stubbs  herself, 
who,  having  heard  the  details  at  some  dinner-table 
at  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stubbs  were  guests,  while 
Pie  was  too  young  to  appear  in  their  company,  took 
pity  on  her  daughter,  weakly  craving  for  informa- 
tion, and  supplied  her  with  certain  particulars.  Mr. 
Cotton  was  a  wealthy  London  merchant  as  had  been 
said.  Further,  as  had  not  been  known  before  he 
came,  he  was  a  widower,  without  a  son  but  with 
several  daughters — the  elder  three  married,  the 
fourth,  a  girl  about  Pie's  age,  who  had  lived  mostly 
at  school  or  with  one  or  other  of  her  sisters — where 
she  ought  to  have  been  still — since  the  last  marriage 
in  the  family  till  now,  when  she  was  coming  home 
to  be  at  the  head  of  her  father's  house — a  girl  not  a 
year  older  than  Pie,  and  with  nobody  to  support  and 
guide  her  except  an  old  working  housekeeper !  It 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS'  45 

was  preposterous  and  wrong,  and  showed  again  what 
sort  of  people  the  Cottons  were.  A  pretty  finish  they 
would  make  of  it  at  the  manor  house. 

A  girl  no  older  than  she  was  the  mistress  of  a 
large  establishment,  one  of  the  heads  of  a  great 
household  !  Here  was  food  for  Pie's  active  imagin- 
ation. She  pitied  Miss  Cotton,  for  though  Pie  was 
an  excellent  deputy-housekeeper  on  a  modest  scale, 
she  had  always  her  mother  to  refer  to.  And  how 
dull,  stupid,  and  miserable  it  would  be  to  have  no 
mother  with  a  mother's  authority  and  experience, 
and  yet  young  enough  to  have  much  of  an  elder 
sister's  sympathy,  to  share  all  her  duties  and  many 
of  her  recreations — to  walk  with  her,  garden  with 
her,  sit  and  work  with  her,  to  read  to  or  be  read  to 
by  her,  as  suited  the  pair  best.  When  Mrs.  Stubbs 
was  from  home,  and  the  sense  that  her  vigilant,  un- 
slumbering  eye  was  removed  from  the  household, 
would  tempt  the  human  mice — Pie  amongst  them — 
to  play  a  little,  the  play  speedily  palled  even  before 
something  went  wrong,  and  Pie  longed  for  her 
guardian  and  companion  back  as  much  openly  as 
Mr.  Stubbs  did  secretly.  How  flat  and  pointless, 
like  a  watch  without  a  pivot  or  a  wheel  without  an 
axle,  must  life  at  the  manor  house  be  without  a  Mrs. 
Cotton  to  look  after  the  household,  take  care  of  every 


46  OfUL  NEIGHBORS. 

member,  and  "  mother "  her  or  him  in  a  breezy, 
bracing  fashion. 

Pie  was  so  impressed  by  the  blank  that  she  pointed 
it  out  to  her  mother  with  the  inference  that  they 
ought  to  feel  for  Miss  Cotton  in  her  forlorn  position, 
and  that  it  was  an  additional  reason  why  the  cot- 
tage should  not  be  stoically  indifferent  to  the  manor 
house. 

But  Mrs.  Stubbs  said,  "  Nonsense  !  Miss  Cotton 
would  not  appreciate  such  reasoning."  Mrs.  Stubbs 
understood  that  the  Cottons  would  have  company 
staying  in  the  house  frequently.  The  married  sisters 
took  it  by  turns  to  be  a  good  deal  with  their  father 
and  young  sister — a  fine  excuse  if  they  cared  for 
gadding.  She  (Mrs.  Stubbs)  wondered  how  their 
husbands  liked  it,  but  any  how  there  was  little  chance 
of  Miss  Cotton's  feeling  lonely  even  if  she  had  not 
been  used  to  the  situation. 

Pie's  room  window  was  one  of  the  few  windows 
of  the  cottage  which  did  not  look  without  blinking 
straight  across  the  lawn,  over  a  bush  or  two,  and 
one  or  other  of  the  bridges  which  spanned  the 
brook,  at  the  manor  house.  But  from  nearly  all  the 
other  rooms,  and  from  innumerable  points  on  the 
Stubbs'  grounds  she  could  get  a  glimpse,  when  she 
had  not  time  to  get  more,  of  the  preparations  and 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  47 

improvements  going  on.  Now  it  was  the  windows 
cleaning,  then  it  was  the  front-door  painting,  next  it 
was  the  transportation  of  tubs  with  choice  specimens 
of  hydrangea,  agapanthus,  and  aloe  to  furnish  the 
veranda  that  ran  along  one  side  of  the  house  and 
fronted  the  Stubbs'  little  veranda.  Pie  could  not 
only  see  what  was  going  on,  she  could  hear  the 
clattering  and  hammering,  and  smell  the  paint  from 
morning  till  night  if  she  did  not  go  out  of  the 
way. 

There  was  some  excuse  for  Mr.  Stubbs  losing  a 
portion  of  his  philosophy  in  his  increase  of  nervous 
headache ;  and  for  Mrs.  Stubbs,  who  defied  noise 
or  evil  odors  to  affect  her  nerves,  taking  the  oppor- 
tunity to  practice  a  little  counter-irritation  and  get 
all  the  cleaning  and  carpentering,  to  which  Mr. 
Stubbs  had  a  strong  objection,  done  under  cover  of 
the  more  extensive  operations  within  hail. 

Pie,  in  her  youth  and  health  of  body  and  mind, 
did  not  suffer  any  more  than  her  mother  suffered 
from  the  racket  within  and  without,  but  she  began 
to  realize,  even  before  the  Cottons'  arrival,  the 
awkwardness  of  the  proximity.  She  did  not  see 
the  family  arrive,vfor  the  good  reason  that  she  had 
shut  herself  up  out  of  sight.  "  They  will  think  we 
are  watching  them  and  spying  on  them,  and  that 


48  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

would  be  too  bad,  particularly  when  we  are  not  to 
call  or  to  have  anything  to  do  with  them.  Perhaps 
they  are  tired  with  their  journey  and  do  not  care  to 
be  first  seen  by  strangers,  fagged  and  out  of  sorts. 
Perhaps  they  travel  in  deshabille.  Perhaps  they 
choose  to  keep  their  family  arrangements  in  the 
privacy  my  mother  is  fond  of  talking  about,  though 
I  am  sure  all  the  world  might  see  what  we  are  do- 
ing at  any  moment  of  our  lives,"  added  Pie  with  a 
little  pride.  "  My  mother  would  be  the  first  to  say 
that  we  make  no  pretense  of  being  what  we  are 
not,  and  that  as  we  have  nothing  to  hide,  so  we 
have  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of.  Still  nobody 
likes  to  be  disturbed  and  intruded  on  when  the 
things  they  chiefly  want  are  rest  and  refreshment; 
and  the  worst  form  of  intrusion  must  be  to  feel 
one's  self  stared  at  by  strangers  who  are  never  to 
be  anything  else  than  strangers — though  the  Cot- 
tons can't  know  that  yet,"  ended  Pie  with  a  sigh. 

But  Pie  was  tempted  to  hearken  to  the  tales 
exchanged  on  every  side  of  her,  which  her  very 
mother  seemed  disposed  to  receive  and  repeat,  for 
events  were  rare  at  Maidsmeadows — of  the  new 
style  of  furnishing  at  the  manor  house,  the  care  and 
elaboration  with  which  all  was  made  in  keeping, 
the  number  of  servants  and  of  horses,  the  variety  of 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  49 

carriages,  the  fact,  that  when  the  family  arrived 
Mr.  Cotton  and  his  youngest  daughter  were  alone. 
He  was  reported  to  be  a  hale,  stout  man,  who 
looked  as  if  his  habits  were  active,  while  he  lived 
well.  She  was  described  as  a  tall  girl  in  a  regular 
traveling  suit,  with  jacket  and  hat  to  match  such  as 
she  might  have  got  to  go  abroad,  or  worn  at  a 
fashionable  watering-place.  She  was  said  to  look 
in  the  fashion,  and  older  than  her  years  as  they  had 
been  guessed  at  Maidsmeadows. 

But  Pie  could  not  continue  to  shut  herself  up. 
She  could  not  close  her  eyes.  She  must  soon  see  all 
about  the  Cottons — whom  she  was  not  to  know  ex- 
cept by  sight — whether  she  would  or  no.  She  felt 
she  had  better  take  a  good  look  when  she  was  about 
it,  and  found  herself  excellently  placed  for  the  pur- 
pose. Pie  was  standing  on  the  small  bleaching-green 
at  the  cottage,  which  was  at  right  angles  to  what  had 
been  the  large  bleaching-green  at  the  manor  house, 
across  the  brook  which  ran  between  them  very  con- 
veniently for  what  had  been  the  original  use  of  the 
greens.  Both  were  still  surrounded  with  thickset- 
hazel  bushes,  and  presented  just  the  pretty  seques- 
tered spots  that  old  country-house  bleaching  greens 
often  were. 

But  though  Mrs.  Stubbs  still  had  the  family  wash- 


50  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

ing  laid  out  in  the  attractive  place  destined  for  it, 
the  manor  house  bleach  ing-green,  after  long  remain- 
ing empty,  had  been  converted  first  into  a  bowling- 
green  and  then  into  a  tennis-court.  It  was  the  mar- 
ket-gardener who  had  the  manor  house  garden  in 
charge  that,  not  caring  to  see  waste  and  not  liking 
to  introduce  skittles  into  such  a  locality,  had  started 
bowls  instead.  As  the  man  and  his  cronies  grew 
older  and  stiffer  they  left  off  meeting  for  the 
game.  Pie  and  her  brother  were  at  an  age 
to  appropriate  the  disused  ground  for  the  bouts  of 
tennis  they  indulged  in  when  Harry  was  at  home, 
for  which  the  Stubbses  lacked  space  on  their  side  of 
the  brook.  Harry  took  off  his  coat,  borrowed  the 
gardener's  scythe,  mowed  afresh  the  grass,  which 
was  no  longer  of  a  velvety  texture,  chalked  it,  put 
up  the  net,  and  the  tennis-court  was  a  fact  accom- 
plished. Clearly  the  Cottons  had  taken  up  the  same 
idea,  for  it  was  the  knocking  about  of  tennis-balls 
which  Pie  heard  as  she  stood  on  the  Stubbs'  bleach- 
ing-green,  behind  their  special  hazel  bushes,  planted 
by  the  honest  old  squire,  not  at  all  as  a  screen,  but 
with  the  double  design  of  furnishing  the  cottage 
dessert  with  filberts  and  of  saving  an  unnecessary 
expenditure  of  poles  and  clothes-line  by  supplying 
the  maid  who  acted  as  laundress  with  a  choice  of 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  51 

verdant  clothes-horses.  Pie  had  gone  to  find 
whether  the  marsh-marigolds  which  she  had  noticed 
budding  by  the  brook  were  sufficiently  in  flower  to 
be  gathered.  She  was  an  old-fashioned  girl,  but  she 
had  awakened  to  a  truth  which  could  not  have 
dawned  on  the  minds  of  the  Miss  Fullers — namely, 
the  merits  of  marsh-marigolds  in  a  nankin  jar. 
Harry's  taste  had  been  so  far  cultivated  at  Oxford 
that  he  had  presented  his  sister  with  a  nankin  jar 
and  a  terra-cotta  pot,  and  suggested  to  her  to  employ 
them  as  substitutes  for  the  elaborate  mock  Dresden 
and  mock  Sevres  vases  on  which  Mrs.  Stubbs  still 
set  store  as  fit  receptacles  for  flowers,  and  proper 
ornaments  for  the  chimney-piece  on  which  they 
alternated  with  clumsily  fantastic  alabaster  and 
Parian  marble  urns  and  statuettes.  How  often  Pie 
and  Harry  had  looked  at  the  vases,  first  with  juve- 
nile admiration,  then  with  a  strong  infusion  of  doubt, 
and  at  last  with  unmitigated  aversion !  The  art 
critics  could  hardly  tell  whether  they  disliked 
most  the  broad  bands  of  monstrous  tulips  and  roses 
in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  of  the  mock  Dres- 
den, or  the  small  soft  olive-green  landscapes  on  a 
ground  of  opaque  pink  of  the  mock  Sevres.  But 
neither  of  the  young  iconoclasts  would  have  ven- 
tured to  disparage  her  ceramic  treasures,  which,  in- 
deed, had  been  wedding  presents,  to  their  owner. 


52  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Pie  had  just  snatched  a  moment  from  the  hundred 
things  she  had  to  do  to  look  how  the  mari- 
golds were  coming  on,  when  she  heard  the  soft 
thudding  of  tennis-balls,  and  pausing  to  listen, 
was  satisfied  that  only  one  person  was  play- 
ing, or  rather,  practicing.  She  readily  con- 
cluded that  the  person  was  her  contemporary  and 
neighbor,  Miss  Harriet  Cotton,  for  the  last  atom  of 
interesting  intelligence  which  had  reached  Pie  was 
that  the  unmarried  Miss  Cotton's  Christian  name 
was  "  Harriet,"  abbreviated  into  "  Harry  "  by  her 
father ;  so  that  had  the  two  families  visited  and 
grown  intimate  the  common  name  might  have  been 
a  source  of  awkward  confusion,  when  Haderezerthe 
younger,  alias  Harry  Stubbs,  was  at  the  cottage.  It 
was  not  probable  that  the  game  of  tennis  was  being 
practiced  in  solitude  by  an  elderly  man  like  Mr.  Cot- 
ton, who  when  not  on  'change  was  said  to  devote 
himself  to  the  expensive  amusement  to  be  had  from 
amateur  farming.  In  proof  of  it  he  had  rented  not 
only  the  manor  house  but  the  home  farm,  and  was 
believed  to  be  contemplating  as  great  revolutions 
and  reforms  there  as  in  the  house  itself.  It  was 
much  more  likely  that  it  was  Miss  Harriet  Cotton 
who  was  thus  idly  knocking  about  the  balls  and  kill- 
ing her  spare  time.  Pie  had  not  much  spare  time  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  53 

kill,  but  she  had  only  to  advance  quietly  to  the  hazel 
bushes,  and  looking  between  the  branches  of  the 
nearest,  have  a  fine  private  view  of  the  player. 

Pie  yielded  to  natural  curiosity,  and  what  did  she 
see  ?  Certainly  not  a  handsome  girl,  wearing  un- 
abashed in  broad  day  a  necklace  of  flashing  dia- 
monds, to  set  off  a  pale  blue  or  pink  silk  or  satin 
frock  trimmed  with  priceless  lace.  This  sounds  an 
incongruous  costume,  but  it  is  very  much  that  in 
which  a  heroine  from  the  far  west  has  been  de- 
scribed as  standing  in  an  English  village  garden,  and 
we  are  told  she  not  only  entranced  the  children,  to- 
gether with  Hodge  and  his  wife,  but  went  on  from 
conquest  to  conquest,  smiting  all  the  intelligent  be- 
holders— the  women  with  secret  envy,  the  men  with 
unstinted  admiration. 

No,  Pie  did  not  come  on  such  a  disheartening  spec- 
tacle, else  it  would  have  convinced  her  that  her 
mother  was  right  in  her  prepossession,  and  that  she 
— Pie — and  Miss  Harriet  Cotton  were  totally  incom- 
patible as  friends.  What  Pie  did  behold  was  im- 
pressive enough  to  a  homekeeping  girl,  but  it  was 
not  nearly  so  bad  as  the  other  vision.  She  saw  a 
tall  girl  with  good  features,  dark  eyes,  and  a  fine, 
but  slightly  sickly,  ivory  -tinted  skin,  wearing  a  frock 
of  some  thin  woollen  stuff  of  the  same  delicate  ivory 


54  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

color  as  her  complexion,  and  a  white  hat  trimmed 
with  soft  white  lace. 

After  all,  the  costume,  contrasting  broadly  with 
Pie's  strong,  sober  ginghams  and  brown  hollands, 
and  her  brown  or  black  hats,  was  not  much  more 
judicious,  though  it  was  a  good  deal  more  modest 
than  the  blue  or  pink  silk  and  the  diamonds. 
Fancy  that  frock  and  hat  after  it  had  passed  up  a 
muddy  lane,  or  been  in  the  plantations  when  a 
shower  was  just  over,  or  even  encountered  the  dust 
and  debris  of  cabbage-stalks,  potato-parings,  and 
soap-suds  in  the  village  street,  which  no  combined 
efforts  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Stubbs,  the  vicar,  the 
doctor,  and  the  inspector  of  nuisances  could  induce 
the  villagers  to  deposit  elsewhere !  Fancy  the 
frock  and  hat  after  they  had  seen  some  service  in 
the  cottage  hospital,  the  alms-houses,  and  what  was 
still  worse,  the  neighboring  cottages !  and  imagine 
the  life  of  the  girl  if  she  could  not  venture  into  a 
muddy  lane,  or  a  plantation  glistening  with  rain- 
drops, or  even  into  the  village  street !  If  she  could 
not  soil  her  gloves  by  gathering  poppies  and  black- 
berries, or  tear  her  kid  boots  and  her  poor  little  feet 
within  them,  among  stones  and  thorns  scrambling 
after  ferns  and  birds'  nests  !  She  had  a  carriage  or 
two,  and  a  pony — perhaps  more  than  one  ;  but  Pie 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  55 

was  very  much  mistaken  in  the  conclusion  she  ar- 
rived at,  if  these  luxuries  would  serve  as  substitutes 
for  the  more  natural  boons. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Mr.  Cotton  liked  to  fill  his 
house  with  company,  and  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  the 
company  was  always  as  congenial  as  the  presence  of 
her  sisters  must  be  to  Miss  Harriet  Cotton,  for 
otherwise  she  was  to  be  pitied  in  place  of  being  en- 
vied. It  made  very  little  difference  that  Pie,  even 
at  the  distance  at  which  she  stood,  could  distinguish 
and  appreciate  the  exquisite  daintiness  of  the  color 
and  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  lines  of  the  girl's 
frock,  together  with  the  simple  elegance  of  her  hat. 
Notwithstanding  such  items,  she  could  not  be  in  her 
right  place  at  the  manor  house  of  Maidsmeadows, 
and  if  she  were  not  in  her  natural  element,  conse- 
quent discomfort  and  injury  were  sure  to  follow,  in 
the  human  being  as  in  the  animal,  in  alien  and  hostile 
conditions,  as  the  plant  taken  from  the  greenhouse 
and  exposed  in  poor  soil  to  a  cold  blast. 

The  evil  appeared  at  work  already  ;  for  Miss 
Harriet  Cotton  looked  colorless,  listless,  if  not 
cross,  as  she  engaged  in  that  decidedly  flat  and 
somewhat  dreary  pastime  of  playing  tennis  all  by 
herself  on  the  old  bleaching-green.  The  Miss 
Fullers  of  a  former  generation  had  the  better  of  her 


56  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

there.  They  brought  out  in  china  bowls  their  o\vn 
and  their  mother's  laces,  the  washing  and  dressing 
of  which  the  ladies  would  not  intrust  to  servants, 
and  shook  and  patted  between  soft  palms  cobweb 
fabrics,  then  hung  them  out  delicately  on  the  bushes 
and  watered  them  from  a  little  watering-can  taken 
from  the  greenhouse,  dipped  gingerly  in  the  brook, 
and  employed  to  sprinkle  head-dresses,  cuffs  and 
collars,  as  well  as  myrtles  and  geraniums.  That 
was  a  labor  of  love,  and  being  a  labor  implied  satis- 
faction in  the  result,  and  well-pleased  rest,  after  the 
dutiful  task  had  been  accomplished.  So  it  had  been 
with  the  old  ladies'  work  in  their  dairy,  their 
poultry  yard,  the  housekeeper's  room,  where  the 
mistresses  as  well  as  the  housekeeper  made  pre- 
serves, pickles,  brewed  home-made  wines,  and  con- 
cocted essences  and  innocent  medicines.  But  there 
was  something  of  the  objectless  round  of  the  tread- 
mill in  this  pretense  of  playing  tennis  as  if  it  were 
patience  or  solitaire,  unless,  indeed,  Miss  Harriet 
Cotton  had  such  a  passion  for  the  game  that  every 
slight  acquisition  of  skill  would  be  ample  reward 
for  long  and  lonely  practice.  It  did  not  look  as  if 
she  had  this  passion,  for  she  played,  not  to  say  care- 
lessly, but  badly.  Pie,  though  she  was  not 
naturally  of  a  grudging  temper,  could  not  help 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  57 

thinking  it  was  a  pity  that  she  and  Harry  had  lost 
their  old  tennis  ground  if  that  spiritless  perform 
ance  was  what  was  to  succeed  their  lively  contests, 
unless,  of  course,  when  the  manor  house  company 
came  to  amuse  themselves  for  a  vacant  hour. 
Another  tennis  court  of  anything  approaching  to 
the  same  extent  was  not  easy  to  find  on  the  cottage 
side  of  the  brook,  since  Mrs.  Stubbs  maintained  the 
primary  destination  of  the  bleaching-green.  It  was 
all  very  \vell  to  say  the  grounds  were  far  larger 
than  such  a  style  of  house  as  the  Stubbses  usually 
commanded,  when  these  grounds  were  cut  up  every- 
where by  ridiculous  winding  walks,  each  supplied 
with  one  or  more  movable  garden  chairs,  and  all 
leading  to  the  brook,  the  bridges,  the  manor  house 
beyond,  as  if  the  one  house  existed  solely  for  the 
other  !  Even  Pie  with  her  romantic  regard  for  the 
old  squire,  sometimes  saw  the  evil  of  his  arrange- 
ments. But  she  could  observe  and  reflect  no  longer 
at  this  moment  if  she  would  not  have  the  book-box 
too  late  for  the  carrier,  or  the  seams  for  the  mother's 
meeting  left  entirely  for  her  mother  to  prepare, 
when  this  was  the  day  of  the  week  on  which  Mrs. 
btubbs  summed  up  her  accounts,  and  wrote  to 
Harry  at  college,  and  to  her  widowed  sister  who 
was  at  Brussels  for  the  education  of  her  children. 


58  OIItL  NEIGHBORS. 

The  same  day  that  Pie  got  a  glimpse  of  Harriet 
Cotton  cheating  herself  with  the  notion  that  she 
was  playing  tennis,  Mr.  Stubbs  at  the  cottage  dinner- 
table  made  his  first  distinct  demur  to  a  decree  in 
which  he  had,  to  begin  with,  coincided.  He  had 
been  under  the  necessity  of  making  a  business  call 
at  the  manor  house  in  order  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  Mr.  Cotton  as  to  some  mutual  obliga- 
tions resting  on  the  two  gentlemen  in  keeping  up 
the  boundaries  between  the  respective  houses  and 
their  grounds.  The  step,  apart  from  all  neighborly 
recognition,  had  been  so  awkward  that  Mr.  Stubbs 
had  nearly  proposed  his  neighbor's  seeing  him  in 
his  lawyer's  office  in  Springfield,  the  next  market 
town.  But  the  adjournment  of  the  interview,  in 
the  light  of  the  fact  that  the  tenants  of  the  manor 
house  and  the  cottage  concerned  in  the  question  at 
issue,  saw  each  other,  unless  they  were  from  home 
or  in  bed,  about  every  hour  of  the  twelve,  rendered 
the  measure  ridiculous  in  its  elaborate  formality. 
At  the  same  time  Mr.  Stubbs  confessed  in  the  pri- 
vacy of  his  family  that  he  had  felt  very  much  put  out. 
And  he  made  the  confession  not  without  a  nettled 
sense  of  his  excellent  wife's  hard-headed  obduracy 
having  been  to  blame  for  his  confusion.  "  The  man 
— a  gentleman-like,  unassuming  old  fellow,  I  must 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  59 

say,  in  spite  of  his  money  and  the  style  he  has  set 
up,  took  it  for  granted,  naturally  enough,  that  I  had 
come  as  a  friend  and  his  nearest  neighbor — better 
late  than  never.  He  took  my  breath  away  by  say- 
ing cordially  he  was  very  glad  he  had  not  happened 
to  go  up  to  town,  though  he  trusted  my  call  was 
but  the  prelude  to  many  such  visits." 

"  Pushing,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  icily. 

"  It  was  not  pushingly  said  ;  and  when  I  mumbled 
something  of  having  come  on  business,  he  took  me 
up  in  a  moment,  though  he  looked  a  little  put  out, 
like  myself,  and  puzzled  into  the  bargain.  He  con- 
tinued perfectly  civil,  and  showed  himself  reasonable 
and  liberal ;  but  he  said  nothing  more  of  seeing  me 
again.  Upon  my  word  I  felt  heartily  ashamed.  I 
was  inclined  to  make  him  an  apology,  and  say  we 
should  all  look  in  on  him  to-morrow,"  ended  Mr. 
Stubbs,  a  little  as  if  he  were  feeling  his  way  with 
the  lady  who  was  his  grand  chamberlain. 

But  no.  "  The  worst  is  over,"  she  said  oracularly. 
"  There  will  be  no  occasion  for  you  to  call  again, 
Haderezer.  How  did  the  house  look  ? " 

"  As  I  never  expected  to  see  it.  I  was  only  in 
the  hall  and  the  library,  and  as  I  am  not  an  uphol- 
sterer or  a  decorator  I  cannot  give  you  details,  but 
it  struck  me  they  were  precisely  what  a  hall  and 
library  should  be." 


60  GIRL  NKIGHBOR8. 

"Then  there  must  have  been  great  improve- 
ments," struck  in  Pie,  excitedly,  stopping  in  peeling 
her  walnuts.  "  I  have  only  seen  the  manor  house 
in  its  unfurnished  state,  but  the  hall  used  to  look 
very  forlorn,  with  its  discolored  cold  black  and  white 
marble,  and  its  rusty  stove ;  as  for  the  library,  it 
was  a  shabby  dark  room,  with  the  walls  smoky,  and 
the  ceiling — the  cornice  at  least — falling  down  in 
one  corner." 

"  This  much  I  can  say  with  confidence,"  declared 
Mr.  Stubbs,  "  there  is  no  discolored  black  and  white 
in  the  hall  now.  I  have  an  idea  there  is  a  suitable 
fireplace  in  the  room  of  the  stove.  In  the  library  a 
couple  of  lancet  windows  have  been  opened  out,  so 
that  it  is  no  longer  dark.  All  traces  of  smoke  have 
disappeared,  as  one  might  have  guessed,  Pie  ;  and, 
by  the  way,  there  is  a  very  fine  ceiling,  which  looks 
as  safe  as  the  sky  over  our  heads.  I  wish  you  could 
have  seen  it,"  went  on  Mr.  Stubbs,  waxing  slightly 
enthusiastic  in  spite  of  himself — "  I  wish  you  could 
have  seen  the  graceful  shapes,  and  the  beautiful  col- 
ors of  everything." 

"  If  all  that  has  been  done  to  the  library,  what 
will  the  rest  of  the  house  be  like  ?  "  speculated  Pie, 
who  was  unaccustomed  to  any  more  interesting  al- 
teration in  the  cottage  than  what  belonged  to  the 


GIRL  NE1QHBOHS.  61 

spring  and  autumn  cleanings,  to  the  re-covering  of  a 
chair,  or  to  a  new  table-cover. 

"  You  are  quite  carried  away,  Haderezer,"  said  his 
wife,  with  an  implied  rebuke  for  his  fickleness  and 
frivolity.  "  We  are  obliged  to  you  for  wishing  that 
we  had  shared  what  seems,  after  all,  to  have  been 
an  enjoyment  to  you.  I  was  not  aware  that  you 
were  fastidious  about  furniture,  or  cared  for  luxuri- 
ous trappings.  But  we  can  do  without  a  personal 
inspection,  thank  you.  We  can  very  well  imagine 
what  we  do  not  see.  I  for  one  am  not  fond  of 
changes  in  my  house.  If  I  were  to  have  my  belong- 
ings constantly  pulled  about  and  remodeled  in  or- 
der to  be  in  the  fashion,  as  some  people's  houses  are, 
I  believe  I  should  learn  to  hate  them." 

This  was  not  a  very  promising  remark,  so  the  sub- 
ject dropped. 


62  01BL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTEE   IY. 

HAREIET  COTTON  ON  THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF   THE   BROOK   AR- 
RIVES AT  HER  CONCLUSIONS. 

HARRIET  COTTON  had  been  rather  a  lonely  girl 
since  her  last  unmarried  sister  had  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  her  predecessors,  though  Harriet  would 
have  been  the  last  person  to  own  it,  either  to  her- 
self or  to  any  one  else.  True,  she  had  been  at 
school,  and  she  had  stayed  a  great  deal  with  her 
married  sisters ;  but  that  was  not  the  same  thing  as 
when  they  had  shared  her  home  life  on  something 
like  terms  of  equality. 

Harriet  had  always  been  well  looked  after  in  a 
sense ;  though  she  had  missed  a  mother's  care  she 
had  been  a  good  deal  petted,  by  her  father,  and, 
when  she  was  younger,  by  her  elder  sisters  in  turn, 
while  she  was  as  much  spoiled  as  she  could  be  by 
the  old  housekeeper  who  had  been  in  Mr.  Cotton's 
service  when  the  last  child  of  the  family  was  born. 
Harriet  Cotton  did  not  think  herself  at  all  badly 
off,  or  in  any  way  to  be  pitied  ;  on  the  contrary, 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  63 

what  girlish  vanity  she  had  (and  how  many  girls 
are  wholly  without  vanity  ?)  was  decidedly  gratified 
by  the  consideration  that  numbers  of  girls  would 
covet  her  privileges  with  reason.  She  thought 
with  pride  of  her  position,  including  her  father's 
large  income  and  ungrudging  expenditure,  the  hand- 
some establishments  he  kept  up  both  in  town  and 
country,  his  affectionate  indulgence  to  her — the  last 
chit  in  the  nest,  as  he  was  wont  to  call  her.  She 
was  persuaded  that  most  girls  would  envy  the  un- 
disputed influence  and  authority  rarely  exercised  by 
one  so  young  which  belonged  to  her  as  the  mistress 
of  a  large  household,  though,  of  course,  her  father 
controlled  her,  and  Mrs.  Walls,  the  housekeeper,  ad- 
vised her.  Even  Harriet's  married  sisters  cast  long- 
ing eyes  on  her  advantages,  and  would  have  been 
disposed,  had  Harriet  permitted  it,  to  interfere  and 
try  to  modify  them,  when  the  matrons  were  staying 
under  the  paternal  roof.  For  though  neither  Laura 
nor  Georgie  nor  Anne  Cotton  had  done  badly  for 
herself,  naturally  their  houses  and  their  other  pos- 
sessions were  not  on  the  same  scale,  and  were  not 
to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath,  as  Mr.  Cotton's. 
However,  w^hen  the  young  married  women  forgot 
that  they  had  by  their  marriages  forfeited  their 
equal  rights  with  Harriet,  she  had  simply  to  appeal 


64  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

to  her  father,  when  he  upheld  his  little  girl  against 
the  interlop  ers,  since  her  sisters  had  become  inter- 
lopers, let  them  be  ever  so  well  married. 

Harriet  Cotton  had  much  of  the  independent  tone 
of  the  girl  of  her  day — an  independence  far  exceed- 
ing, and  quite  distinct  from  Pie  Stubbs'  freedom  of 
conscience  and  opinion,  which  was  respected  by  her 
father  and  mother.  Harriet  had  the  modern  girl's 
inclination  to  undervalue  the  claims  of  seniority  and 
larger  experience,  and  her  hatred  of  the  humbug  of 
sentiment  which  pushed  her  into  the  attitude  of  as- 
suming that  very  little  sentiment  of  any  kind 
existed.  She  was  a  little  hard  and  worldly-minded 
for  her  years,  and  was  prompted  to  give  herself  out 
as  being  a  hundred  times  harder  and  more  worldly- 
minded  than  she  really  was — in  short,  to  talk  with  a 
rather  "brutal"  matter-of-factness,  and  a  dash  of 
cynicism  which  would  have  been  held  at  one  time 
passing  strange  and  positively  alarming  in  a  girl  of 
sixteen.  Withal,  notwithstanding  her  delicate  dress 
and  delicate  physique,  her  fine  lady  ways,  and  the 
little  airs  and  graces  which  she  was  not  above  indulg- 
ing in,  on  occasions,  Harriet  Cotton  had  acquired  a 
slightly  masculine  element,  the  best  phase  of  which 
was  its  straightforwardness  and  downrightness.  It 
was  an  element  lacking  in  Pie  Stubbs,  though  the 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  65 

latter  had  much  more  available  knowledge  and  re- 
source, and  was  capable  of  being  of  far  greater  serv- 
ice in  any  emergency  likely  to  befall  a  woman. 

But  behind  the  accidents  of  her  generation  and 
her  rearing,  which  had  but  the  superficial  masculine 
tinge,  there  was  an  eager  immature  woman,  with  a 
true  woman's  quick  feelings  smothered,  and  sensitive 
conscience  held  in  check.  Poor  Harriet,  without 
meaning  it  or  thinking  of  it,  did  not  do  herself  jus- 
tice, and  she  was  to  a  large  extent  careless,  in  the 
commencement  of  her  intercourse  with  her  neigh- 
bors, of  the  impression  she  produced  on  them,  mo- 
mentous as  that  impression  might  be  to  her. 

To  her  disgust  Harriet  found  herself  hankering 
after  the  girl  at  the  cottage,  of  whom  the  girl  at 
the  manor  house  had  taken,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
hundreds  of  bird's-eye  peeps,  but  who  had  not 
thought  fit  to  come  near  Miss  Cotton.  "Why  did 
Miss  Stubbs  not  come  ?  What  was  she  like  close  at 
hand  ? — she  looked  a  rustic  and  a  dowdy  at  a  little 
distance.  What  was  the  reason  for  her  very  queer 
name  ?  Indeed  both  her  names  were  queer.  "  Pie 
Stubbs,"  Harriet  had  heard  her  called — was  there 
ever  such  a  combination  ?  She  (Harriet)  had  not 
believed  herself  a  gossip  before — she  told  herself 
this  as  if  in  her  slight  person  and  youthful  mind 


68  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

was  garnered  much  of  the  wisdom  of  the  ages — 
but  she  was  afraid  she  would  soon  be  descending  to 
village  tattle.  She  supposed  it  was  a  case  of  con- 
tagion. 

"  Father,"  said  Harriet  on  the  next  opportunity 
when  the  two  were  strolling  about  their  lawn  in 
full  view,  as  they  were  aware,  of  the  occupants  of 
the  cottage,  if  the  Stubbses  cared  to  look  at  the 
Cottons,  "  we  are  not  favored  with  aristocratic  titles 
in  this  quarter.  I  hear  that  the  people  over  the  way, 
who  do  not  think  us  fit  to  associate  with  them  and 
have  sent  us  to  Coventry,  are  called  Stubbs.  Where 
did  they  get  that  sweet  name  ?  It  just  suits  their 
behavior — stubbly  is  the  right  word  for  it,  is  it  not? 
Do  you  suppose  the  first  Stubbs  was  a  hedger  and 
ditcher?" 

"What  ails  you  at  'Stubbs,'  Harry?"  inquired 
her  father  with  a  good-natured  laugh.  "  We  must 
speak  low  in  case  any  of  the  Stubbses  should  hear 
us.  I  admit  the  owners  of  the  name  have  not  been 
particularly  gracious  to  us — I  cannot  tell  you  why. 
I  knew  we  had  very  near  neighbors,  but  I  did  not 
object  to  them,  being  town-bred  myself.  I  had  an 
idea  they  would  be  social  on  a  rainy  day.  How- 
ever, the  Stubbses  are  at  liberty  to  choose  their 
friends,  and  we  have  certainly  enough  and  to  spare 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  67 

without  them.  The  only  member  of  the  family  I 
have  actually  encountered  as  rather  prepossessing 
at  the  first  glance — looked  a  man  a  little  out  of 
the  common  in-  intelligence  and  culture — shy  and 
crotchety,  perhaps,  from  living  out  of  the  world 
and  from  being  somewhat  out  of  health,  which  I 
hear  was  his  reason  for  retiring  here,  but  I  dare  say 
not  less  original  on  that  account ;  still,  as  the  old 
song  says : 

"  '  If  she  be  not  fair  to  me, 

What  care  I  how  fair  she  be  !  ' 

Since  he  and  his  will  have  none  of  us,  we  can  afford 
to  let  them  alone  without  bearing  malice.  We  can 
do  without  them,  unless  we  are  hard  pressed  to 
make  up  a  whist  party,  and  then  I  suppose  we 
shall  have  to  fall  back  on  '  dummy '  or  on  billards." 

"That  is  all  very  well,"  said  Harriet  with  the 
ease  of  a  girl  who  knew  she  could  say  anything  she 
liked  to  her  father,  while  she  clasped  one  of  his  arms 
with  both  her  hands ;  "  but  what  has  that  to  do  with 
their  appropriate  name— Stubbs?  How  did  Stubbs 
rise  above  hedges  and  ditches?  " 

"Hush!  my  dear,  you  are  talking  nonsense,"  re- 
monstrated. Mr.  Cotton.  "  There  are  plenty  of 
Stubbses — very  good  Stubbses — in  England  ;  and  as 


68  OIRL  NEIGHBORS 

to  these  Stubbses,  I  was  speaking  to  the  vicar,  and 
he  says  the  family  are  proud  of  their  name,  which 
has  come  down  to  them  from  a  famous  uncompro- 
mising Puritan  ancestor — I  hope  I  am  right  in  the 
Puritan,  Harry  ? "  asked  the  gentleman  candidly. 
"  I  was  college  bred,  but  I  am  not  so  clear  on 
English  history  and  literature  as  I  am  on  the  mar- 
kets at  home  and  abroad,  though  I  have  no  doubt 
many  a  younger,  glibber  man  would  declare  I  am 
an  old  fogey  on  them  too.  But  you  are  just  off  the 
irons,  you  should  be  brilliant  on  the  Puritan, 
Stubbs." 

"  I  know  nothing  about  them,"  said  Harriet  un- 
blushingly.  "  I  am  not  sure  that  I  approve  of  the 
Puritans,  if  he  was  a  Puritan.  I  can  believe  he  was 
uncompromising,  for  that  belongs  to  his  single-sylla- 
bled name ;  but  I  still  incline  to  think  that  he  had 
something  to  do  with  hedges  and  ditches." 

"  Just  as  we  have  to  do  with  the  staple  produc- 
tion of  Manchester  or  with  the  niggers  of  old  Yir- 
ginny,"  said  Mr.  Cotton,  ironically.  "  People  who 
live  in  glass  houses  ought  not  to  throw  stones. 
There  are  only  two  syllables  in  'Cotton,'  Miss 
Harriet,  and  the  associations  are — well,  not  feudal." 

"  How  can  you  compare  the  two  names ! "  pro- 
tested Harriet  indignantly ;  "  and  you  know  we  had 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  69 

one  ancestor  at  least  who  was  not  merely  a  man  of 
learning,  he  was  a  public  benefactor." 

"  So  may  have  been  the  Puritan  Stubbs  for  aught 
we  can  tell.  I  must  call  you  to  order  on  another 
point.  "We  do  not  know  that  Cotton  of  the  manu- 
scripts was  our  ancestor.  There  are  some  trifling 
collateral  indications,  but  there  would  be  just  as 
many  if  we  put  ourselves  to  the  trouble  to  seek 
them  out  in  connection  with  any  Manchester  or 
Glasgow  cotton-broker,  who  happened  to  bear  the 
name  of  his  merchandise. 

Harriet  hung  her  head  for  an  instant,  blushing 
furiously,  and  muttering  that  Cotton  for  a  name 
was  not  at  all  common,  therefore  it  was  permissible 
to  trace  back  all  the  English  Cottons  to  the  same 
stock. 

"  The  founder  of  which  dealt  in  the  raw  material, 
depend  upon  it,"  said  its  present  representative, 
"  just  as  the  illustrious  Smiths  trace  back  to  a  smith, 
and  the  Bakers  to  a  baker." 

Harriet  was  silent  for  another  moment.  It  was 
not  like  her  to  have  been  guilty  of  an  unwarrant- 
able assumption,  and  she  was  heartily  ashamed  of 
it ;  but  she  had  talked  herself  into  the  belief  that 
she  was  entitled  to  claim  so  creditable  a  progenitor 
as  Cotton  of  the  famous  collection  of  MSS.  depos- 


70  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

ited  in  the  British  Museum,  according  to  her  father's 
definition. 

"  And  think  of  Haderezer  and  Pie,"  she  turned 
the  conversation  a  little.  "  The  lady  in  the  white 
shawl  who  called  to-day  said  these  were  the  Chris- 
tian names  of  the  father  and  mother  as  well  as  of 
the  son  and  daughter.  What  do  you  make  of  such 
names  ? " 

"  Haderezer  sounds  Persian  and  Babylonish," 
said  Mr.  Cotton  boldly ;  "  and  if  Pie  stands  for 
piety,  no  quality  is  more  deserving  of  honor  than 
the  genuine  article. 

"  I  believe  it  stands  for  cherry  pie,  her  cheeks  are 
so  red,"  said  Harriet ;  "  seriously,  father,  Pie  repre- 
sents Sapientia." 

"  Well,  wisdom  is  another  good  thing,  though  it 
seldom  dwells  with  girls.  Quite  true,  my  dear,  I 
am  afraid  this  poor  young  lady  must  have  suffered 
a  good  deal  from  much  idle  play  on  her  shortened 
name — pigeon  pie,  game  pie,  shepherd's  pie — there 
is  a  horribly  available  suggestiveness  of  bad  puns  in 
each." 

"  Don't  forget  mag-pie  and  pie-bald — speak  of— 
yonder  she  is ! "  exclaimed  Harriet,  with  all  her 
coolness  holding  her  breath,  as  Pie,  not  more  con- 
scious of  being  observed  than  she  had  become  at  all 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  71 

times  lately,  came  out  of  the  little  cottage  avenue, 
and,  crossing  her  own  lawn,  entered  her  house. 

"  Upon  my  word  she  looks  as  nice  and  sensible 
a  young  girl  as  one  need  wish  to  see,"  said  Mr. 
Cotton,  regretfully. 

"Why  are  girls  in  brown  ginghams  or  blue 
serges  and  weather-beaten  hats  always  considered 
sensible  ?  Should  you  wish  me  to  make  myself  a 
fright  and  be  thought  sensible  ? " 

"  I  am  afraid  the  attempt  would  be  hopeless, 
Harry — no,  don't  shake  my  rheumatic  shoulder. 
How  can  you  tell  that  I  don't  refer  to  making  your- 
self a  fright,  and  not  to  being  thought  a  wise-acre  ? " 
argued  Mr.  Cotton,  looking  with  tAvinkling  affec- 
tionate eyes  at  his  daughter's  ivory  skin,  dark  eyes, 
and  faultless  costume — faultless  for  a  drawing-room 
or  a  London  park,  or  even  a  well  swept  garden  ter- 
race. "  That  girl  would  have  been  a  good  compan- 
ion for  you  since  your  sisters  have  left  you  all  by 
yourself,"  he  said  again,  harping  on  the  subject  of 
Pie.  "  I  wish  to  goodness  these  worthy  people  had 
not  taken  into  their  heads  to  cut  us.  One  would 
have  thought,  without  too  much  vanity,  we  might 
have  been  a  gain  to  them  as  they  to  us.  I  suppose 
it  is  too  late,  and  it  would  be  too  barefaced,  to 
attempt  to  propitiate  them." 


72  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Father,  what  do  you  mean  ? "  cried  Harriet.  "  I 
want  no  companion.  I  can  even  do  without  you— 
at  times,"  she  added,  relenting  and  pressing  the 
arm  she  held.  "  But  as  for  girls,  I  am  very  glad  to 
be  quit  of  them.  I  cannot  be  troubled  with  them,  if 
I  do  not  exert  myself  sufficiently  to  hate  them." 

"  Harry,  this  is  rank  treason  against  yourself  and 
your  kind.  I  will  not  allow  it.  If  I  hear  another 
word  of  it  I  shall  adopt  half  a  dozen  more  girls  on 
the  spot."  He  spoke  laughingly,  and  presently 
Harriet  was  called  in  for  some  consultation  with  her 
old  housekeeper.  Mrs.  Walls  was  punctilious  in 
what  she  considered  her  duty  of  making  her  "  little 
Miss  Harry,"  of  not  so  many  years  ago,  play  her 
part  of  mistress  in  the  house  ;  "  and  well  she  does 
it  too,  the  high-spirited,  sharp-sighted  dear,"  com- 
mented the  old  woman  admiringly. 

Mr.  Cotton's  face  fell,  and  his  brow,  which,  in 
spite  of  his  years  and  his  money,  was  wonderfully 
smooth  and  placid  in  general,  clouded  over.  "  Poor 
dear  Harry  !  she  cannot  help  being  precocious  and 
self-confident,  like  many  girls  nowadays ;  but  if  I 
thought  my  litle  girl  would  grow  up  unwomanly  I 
almost  think  I  could  bring  myself  to  the  point  of 
marrying  again  at  the  risk  of  driving  her  frantic, 
and  drawing  down  all  manner  of  unforeseen  cares 


&1RL  NEIGHBORS.  73 

on  my  devoted  head.  Or  I  might  give  up  house- 
keeping, and  quarter  Harry  and  myself  on  the  other 
girls  and  their  husbands  by  turns,  like  old  Lear  on 
Eegan  and  Goneril,  if  that  would  mend  matters, 
only  the  precedent  is  neither  cheerful  nor  encour- 
aging.* 

Harriet  Cotton  had  ostensibty  a  great  household 
to  rule  and  guide.  She  did  not  doubt  her  capacity 
to  hold  the  reins,  and  she  conducted  domestic  affairs 
with  a  high  hand  when  she  conducted  them  at  all. 
This  meant  that  if  Mr.  Cotton's  general  support, 
always  there  in  abeyance  even  when  he  was  in 
town  attending  to  his  business,  and  Mrs.  Walls' 
skilled  supervision  in  details,  had  been  withdrawn 
for  a  day,  the  whole  domestic  constitution  would 
have  collapsed  and  dire  confusion  followed.  Harriet 
did  not  suspect  this,  clever  as  she  was,  and  went  on 
in  dignity  and  comfort,  with  her  intermittent  fits  of 
active  interference  in  the  housekeeping  when  she 
was  in  the  mood,  and  of  letting  it  alone  when  she 
was  tired  of  the  occupation,  without  any  thought  of 
the  consequences,  which,  to  be  sure,  in  the  present 
order  of  things,  neither  touched  her  nor  any  one 
else.  She  had  plenty  of  spare  time  on  her  hands 
when  she  was  not  playing  at  being  the  lady  of  the 
house,  one  of  its  heads  in  fact.  She  had  more  time 


74  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

than  she  could  very  well  get  rid  of — a  great  deal 
more  than  fell  to  Pie's  share  ;  so  naturally  Harriet 
took  to  watching  and  criticising  Pie  far  more  fre- 
quently and  freely  than  Pie  performed  the  same 
office  for  Harriet.  The  soul  of  such  watching  is 
criticism — more  or  less  carping  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  watcher.  It  is  the  peculiar  evil  of 
human  nature  in  such  a  position  of  arrested  inter- 
course as  the  Stubbses  and  the  Cottons  had  been  in- 
duced to  take  up  to  each  other,  that  while  both  parties 
may  have  begun  with  meaning  to  be  strictly  neutral, 
the  neutrality  rapidly  passes  into  superciliousness, 
and  it  is  an  open  question  whether  the  supercilious- 
ness does  not  develop  into  positive  enmity.  Indiffer- 
ence between  man  and  man  in  the  circumstances, 
however  desirable,  is  beyond  attainment.  But  the 
persons  most  affected  by  the  relations  in  which  the 
families  stood  to  each  other  were  two  young, 
impressionable,  comparatively  disengaged  creatures 
like  Pie  and  Harriet.  If  it  would  have  been  foolish 
of  them,  belonging  to  different  spheres  and  knowing 
little  or  nothing  of  each  other,  to  have  flown  into 
each  other's  arms,  there  was,  on  the  other  hand, 
some  danger  of  their  flying  metaphorically  into 
each  other's  faces  ere  long.  The  seniors  on  both 
sides,  though  they  might  gradually  yield  to  the 


QIRL  NEIGHBORS.  75 

same  influence,  were  preoccupied,  and  had  many 
other  long-standing  interests  to  bespeak  their  atten- 
tion. 

The  servants,  for  a  wonder,  and  because  human 
nature  is  contradictory,  probably,  had  declared  in 
favor  of  good-will  and  geniality,  and  rebuked  their 
betters  by  an  immediate  interchange  of  social  over- 
tures. This  is  a  free  country,  and  Mrs.  Stubbs,  how- 
ever she  might  disapprove  and  feel  aggrieved,  could 
not  think  of  objecting  to  Lydia  the  housemaid's 
politely  volunteering  to  introduce  a  London  Lydia 
to  church  and  to  chapel,  or  to  "William's  telling  Mr. 
Cotton's  groom  where  he  would  find  the  nearest 
smith  in  order  to  have  the  horses  shod,  and  who 
was  the  best  farrier  in  the  district,  and  afterward 
accepting  the  obliged  groom's  invitation  to  adjourn 
to  Mr.  Cotton's  stable  and  inspect  all  the  new  ar- 
rangements in  the  shape  of  hay-racks  and  drain  tiles. 
Mrs.  Stubbs  was  stonily  silent  when  even  cook,  in- 
stead of  resenting  the  presence  at  the  manor  house 
of  another  cook — a  much  younger  woman,  and  one 
who  was  understood  to  have  twice  as  many  preten- 
sions and  three  times  more  wages — was  actually 
propitiated  by  the  cunning  woman's  coming  to  the 
door  and  begging  her  pardon,  while  she  asked  for  a 
little  information  about  the  village  shops  and  the 


76  01RL  NEIGHBORS. 

shops  in  Springfield  and  the  farms  round,  where  ad- 
ditional supplies  of  butter,  eggs,  and  cream  were  to 
be  got.  The  manor  house  cook  took  it  upon  her  to 
bring  over  the  manor  house  housekeeper,  who  was 
only  a  working  housekeeper  not  above  visiting  cooks 
and  owning  that  she  too,  had  been  a  cook  in  her 
day.  Mrs.  Walls  was  anxious  to  learn  if  the  family 
at  the  cottage  reared  their  own  poultry,  as  she  felt 
her  "  people "  ought  to  do  if  they  stayed  for  any 
length  of  time  in  the  country.  She  would  be  so 
thankful  for  a  few  hints,  for  though  she  had  trussed 
and  stuffed  many  a  fowl,  she  had  not  brought  up 
one  chicken. 

Not  only  the  Stubbs'  servants,  but  several  of  the 
Cottons'  had,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  would  not  have  ex- 
pected, either  grown  old  in  their  master's  service  or 
been  to  a  great  extent  trained  in  it.  These  servants 
not  taking  up  and  accentuating  the  incipient  feud 
between  the  families  was  a  remarkable  circumstance; 
so  was  the  fact  that  Miss  Cotton,  in  her  juvenile 
dignity,  was  as  much  opposed  on  principle  to  serv- 
ants' gossip  and  village  tattle  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  could 
be.  Still,  the  obstacles  did  not  prevent  little  scraps 
of  family  history  and  tales  of  what  was  going  on  so 
near  from  filtering  continually  out  of  the  lower  into 
the  higher  regions  like  water  rising  to  its  own  level. 


OIRL  NEIGHBORS.  7? 

These  odds  and  ends  of  information,  in  addition  to 
the  material  which  mutual  acquaintances  supplied 
lent  greater  solidity  of  shape  and  depth  of  color  to 
Pie's  and  Harriet's  observations. 

There  was  one  feature  in  the  grounds  of  the 
manor  house  of  which  there  was  not  a  minimized 
duplicate  in  the  grounds  of  the  cottage,  doubtless 
because  this  exception  dated  considerably  further 
back  than  Squire  Cotton's  time.  It  was  a  sham 
ruin  of  such  respectable  antiquity,  as  Harriet  Cot- 
ton said,  with  that  curl  of  her  soft  lip  which  was 
ominously  near  a  sneer,  it  was  every  bit  as  good  as 
a  real  ruin.  It  was  mossy,  weather-stained,  and 
hung  round  with  obsequious  ivy.  It  had  a  window- 
like,  gaping  aperture,  in  the  style  of  a  church  win- 
dow, and  a  crumbling  stair  among  the  ivy  which 
led  to  a  half-hidden  ledge  that  commanded  as  much 
as  was  to  be  seen  far  and  near  of  an  unimpeachably 
rural  landscape.  What  did  it  signify  that  it  was 
only  the  monument  of  a  silly  fashion,  a  piece  of 
affectation,  and  make-believe,  when  so  much  of  life 
was  composed  of  fashions  and  make-believes  ?  No- 
body had  been  deceived  in  the  sham  tower  as  if  it 
had  been  sham  jewelry,  so  that  it  did  not  seem  to 
matter  to  Harriet  that  no  rough  life  full  of  human 
humor  and  human  pathos  had  been  lived  within  the 


narrow  bounds,  no  fierce  warfare  shaken  the  strong- 
hold to  its  foundations.  It  had  never  been  a  strong- 
hold, and  such  foundations  as  it  had,  must  be  of  the 
shoddiest  description.  It  was  only  a  place  to  cheat 
the  eye,  a  subject  for  a  schoolgirl's  sketch.  At 
best  it  formed  a  handy  shelter  for  garden  tools,  like 
a  dilapidated  summer-house,  or  it  supplied  an  agree- 
able elevation  and  a  certain  amount  of  shade,  when 
visitors,  indifferent  to  earwigs  and  "  God  Almighty's 
pigs,"  elected  to  sit  on  the  ivy -garlanded  steps  and 
drink  afternoon  tea. 

But  Harriet  would  climb  up  those  steps  which 
were  shallow  and  safe  enough,  though  it  was  to  the 
serious  detriment  of  her  delicately -tinted  cashmere 
or  canvas  frocks,  and  without  going  as  far  as  the 
ledge,  by  merely  ensconcing  herself  among  the 
bushy  ivy  could  look  over  the  little  domain  across 
the  brook  as  if  it  were  a  map  at  her  feet.  It  became 
a  decidedly  entertaining  map  as  Harriet  came  to 
know  its  points,  which  she  did  not  scruple  to  study. 
Proud  as  she  was  she  did  not  show  herself  so  chary 
of  sp37ing  on  her  neighbors  as  Pie  Stubbs  had  shown 
herself.  Indeed,  the  minor  characters  in  her  drama 
of  life  were  apt  to  exist  in  the  young  lady's  imagi- 
nation, if  not  solely  for  her  convenience,  a  good  deal 
for  her  entertainment.  And  always  the  center  of 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  79 

this  little  world  of  the  cottage,  the  main  figure 
which  eclipsed  all  others  to  this  girl  who  professed 
to  despise  other  girls  and  to  be  glad  to  be  rid  of 
them,  was  the  girl  like  herself — Pie  moving  among 
the  home  surroundings. 

"  What  a  demure  little  wretch  she  is !  "  Harriet 
would  tell  herself,  as  her  eyes  followed  Pie  setting 
out  on  some  errand  to  Maidsmeadows.  "  I  daresay 
she  has  tracts  in  that  little  basket,  and  is  going  to 
make  hypocrites  of  all  the  old  women  in  the  vil- 
lage. Well,  she  can  also  be  a  tomboy  "  for  Pie,  dis- 
covering that  she  was  late  and  forgetting  for  a  mo- 
ment what  eyes  might  be  upon  her,  had  started  to 
run  as  far  as  the  cottage  gate,  and  was  making  such 
progress — basket  with  supposed  tracts  and  all — as 
only  a  healthy,  lively  young  girl  or  lad  can  accom- 
plish. "  Won't  she  be  a  blown  and  blowsy  spec- 
tacle, with  her  hair  out  of  order,  her  hat  falling  off 
her  head,  the  pins  dropping  out  of  her  linen  collar, 
and  her  shoe-ties  loose,  by  the  time  she  stops.  I 
should  not  care  to  run  like  that  unless  an  engine 
which  had  gone  off  the  railway  line,  or  a  bear  which 
had  escaped  from  a  menagerie,  were  behind  me." 

The  next  time  Harriet  was  on  the  tower  steps  Pie 
and  her  mother  were  sitting  at  work  together  in  the 
little  veranda  which  aped  the  big  veranda  at  the 


80  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

manor  house.  "  What  an  improving  spectacle  !  " 
soliloquized  Harriet  with  her  head  on  one  side.  "  Do 
these  two  sit  there  for  the  benefit  of  the  servants  or 
of  chance  visitors,  or  is  it  merely  to  gratify  an  un- 
conscious craving  for  a  display  of  virtue  ?  I  know 
exactly  what  is  happening.  The  mother — she  does 
look  a  shrew  ! — is  stitching  for  dear  life  and  giving 
goo  d  advice,  such  as  dreadful  parents  used  to  be  in 
the  habit  of  administering  to  their  sons  and  daugh- 
ters ;  while  the  dutiful  daughter  is  stitching  and  lis- 
tening or  pretending  to  listen.  I  would  not  be  a  good 
little  girl,  to  sit  and  sew  and  be  preached  at,  for  the 
whole  world.  I  should  prick  my  finger  to  the  bone, 
or  have  a  sleeping  foot  and  rise  and  run  away." 
Harriet  looked  again  and  opened  her  eyes  widely. 
"  I  declare  she  takes  it  coolly,  she  has  put  down  her 
work  and  leaned  back  to  laugh  !  Well  done,  Miss 
Stubbs,  I  did  not  think  it  was  in  you !  She  must 
have  lost  her  senses.  She  will  get  into  disgrace. 
But  the  mother  is  laughing  too!  What  humbugs 
they  must  both  be !  They  ought  not  to  be  encouraged! 
horrid  creatures  !  "  And  Harriet  hurried  down  from 
her  coigne  of  vantage,  angry  and  sore,  she  could 
not  have  told  why,  for  she  would  not  have  minded 
though  it  had  been  proved  that  her  neighbors' 
laughter  was  at  her  expense. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  81 

All  the  afternoon  and  evening,  when  her  father 
was  dining  out  without  her,  Harriet  was  haunted  by 
that  small  tableau,  like  a  vignette,  of  the  mother  and 
daughter  in  the  veranda,  framed  by  an  old-fash- 
ioned clematis  and  a  noisette  rose,  sitting  together 
talking  and  laughing  over  their  work. 

"  I  suppose  if  I  had  watched  long  enough  the  cad- 
averous father  Stubbs  would  have  appeared  on  the 
scene  and  sung  a  merry  song,  or  danced  a  hornpipe, 
in  order  to  complete  the  representation  of  domestic 
felicity,"  reflected  Harriet  Cotton  with  withering 
satire. 


83  01RL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTER   V. 

AN    OLD-FASHIONED    BEE. 

PIE  MIGHT  well  laugh,  if  to  have  nearly  as  much 
work  as  she  could  do,  and  plenty  of  youthful  health 
and  spirit  with  which  to  do  it,  is,  as  has  been  as- 
serted by  the  best  authorities,  one  of  the  first  secrets 
for  ensuring  human  happiness.  She  used  to  awake 
to  an  exhilarating  rather  than  a  depressing  sense  of 
the  number  of  engagements  she  had  to  fulfill  before 
the  sun  set,  and  get  up  with  the  conviction  that  if 
she  lay  a  minute  longer  she  would  be  guilty  of  dis- 
graceful sloth  and  negligence  of  binding  obligations. 
Yet  after  she  had  gone  briskly  into  her  bath  and 
through  her  toilet  she  had  still  ample  time  not  only 
to  sit  down  quietly  and  read  her  chapter  and  try  to 
say  her  prayers  in  a  proper  spirit,  she  had  an  inter- 
val to  spare  in  which  she  could  just  go  round  the 
garden  to  see  how  the  flowers  were  looking,  and  tie 
up  a  plant  here  and  pull  up  a  weed  there.  When  it 
was  the  season  of  violets  she  was  in  the  habit  of 
picking  as  many  as  she  could  find,  and  if  the  family 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  83 

were  alone,  as  they  generally  were,  putting  the  vio- 
lets beneath  her  father's  and  mother's  plates,  so  that 
they  could  only  smell  and  not  see  them.  Her  father 
alwa}^s  got  up  a  little  wonder  as  to  where  the  fra- 
grant scent  came  from.  Her  mother  only  sniffed, 
with  the  ghost  of  a  smile,  pursing  up  her  mouth  to 
prevent  further  acknowledgment  of  a  piece  of  child's 
play  which  Pie  really  ought  to  leave  off,  as  she  was 
getting  far  too  old  for  it.  When  it  was  the  season 
of  fruit — from  cherries  and  strawberries  on  to  plums 
and  peaches,  apples  and  pears — Pie  always  gathered 
the  best,  with  the  dew  on  them,  and  filled  a  dish  to 
grace  the  breakfast  table — sometimes  it  was  the 
only  dish  her  father  tasted. 

Pie  poured  out  the  tea  and  coffee,  for  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
though  an  exceedingly  active  woman,  had  one  flaw 
in  her  armor.  She  had  once  gone  through  rheu- 
matic fever,  which  had  left  its  effects  in  a  certain, 
stiffness  of  the  hands  and  feet  in  the  morning  before 
she  had  walked  and  worked  off  the  stiffness. 

After  breakfast  and  prayers  Pie  had  the  poultry, 
which  were  her  charge  in  the  morning,  to  attend  to. 
If  the  housekeeper  at  the  manor  house  thought  of 
rearing  poultry  in  the  country,  the  family  at  the 
cottage  had  gone  beyond  thinking,  they  had  done  the 
deed  in  successive  generations  of  feathered  fowls  ever 


84  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

since  Pie  could  remember.  To  feed  the  various  tribes, 
to  gather  the  eggs  and  mark  each  with  the  name  of 
the  mother  hen,  duck,  turkey  or  goose,  as  might  be 
—for  Pie's  poultry  were  not  an  indiscriminate, 
nameless  multitude* — and  write  the  date  when  the 
egg  was  laid,  took  time  and  trouble,  however  equal 
the  performer  might  be  to  the  task. 

If  her  mother  required  her  daughter's  assistance, 
Pie  joined  Mrs.  Stubbs  afterward  in  the  storeroom 
or  linen  closet,  for  there  was  no  responsible  paid 
housekeeper  like  Mrs.  Walls  at  the  cottage.  Indeed, 
cook,  who  called  herself  just  a  plain  working  cook 
but  could  be  trusted  with  anything  she  undertook, 
was  not  so  young  as  she  had  been.  To  keep  her 
from  feeling  that  she  was  failing  a  little  and  that 
her  memory  was  no  longer  on  a  par  with  her 
honesty,  and  so  being  tempted  to  withdraw  her 
valuable  services  from  the  Stubbses  and  eat  her 
heart  out  away  from  them,  a  considerable  amount 
of  diplomacy  had  to  be  practiced.  Cook  had  to  be 
backed  up,  without  speaking  of  it,  with  all  the  sup- 
plementary aid  that  could  be  provided  for  her. 
Many  a  hurried  little  walk  Pie  took  in  the  blazing 
noonday  sun  or  the  drizzling  rain,  to  give  the  car- 
rier to  Springfield  some  commission  which  it  was 
suspected  that  cook  had  forgotten  to  mention  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  85 

him,  or  to  get  at  the  village  shop  some  necessary 
trifle  of  pepper  or  mustard  which  might  have  been, 
found  lacking  when  wanted.  "How  restless  these 
young  misses  do  be,  to  be  sure  ! "  cook  would  look 
out  and  say  with  a  mixture  of  complacency  and 
sardonicalness ;  "  if  there  ain't  Miss  Pie  padding  to 
the  village  afore  lunch  just  because  she  can't  rest 
at  'ome,  though  she's  none  so  set  against  her  'ome 
as  I've  seed  some  young  ladies  !  " 

Lydia  the  housemaid,  could  not  be  trusted  to  dust 
the  china,  or  for  that  matter  to  put  the  finishing 
touches  to  the  parlor,  without  a  mistress'  eye 
upon  her.  Pie  undertook  the  china,  and  saw  that 
Lydia  did  not  neglect  any  holes  and  corners.  It 
was  then  Lydia  would  confide  to  her  young  mis- 
tress Lydia's  "  heaps  of  troubles"  with  her  stepfather 
and  her  young  man  who  was  threatening  to  emi- 
grate, and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  getting 
proper  places  for  her  younger  sisters  who  were  in 
Pie's  class  in  the  Sunday-school. 

William,  the  boy  who  played  a  double  part  as 
stable-boy  and  gardener  lad,  was  apt  to  make  havoc 
among  the  seedlings  and  slips  in  the  little  green- 
house if  Pie  or  her  mother  did  not  make  a  point  of 
being  at  hand  to  inspect  all  his  doings.  And  when 
he  was  lifting  pots  under  her  orders,  Pie  without 


86  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

committing  a  breach  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject, 
might  induce  him  to  enlist  in  the  Blue  Ribbon  army, 
in  addition  to  being  a  member  of  her  Boys'  Lending 
Library. 

Sometimes  when  his  nervous  headache  incapaci- 
tated Mr.  Stubbs  from  reading,  he  liked  his  news- 
paper, or  any  scientific  book  he  \vas  engaged  on,  to 
be  read  to  him  by  Pie.  On  other  days  he  sum- 
moned her  to  go  over  to  his  drawers  of  minerals  and 
see  that  they  were  taking  no  harm,  and  to  com- 
pare them  with  his  catalogue  that  no  mistake  might 
creep  in.  He  had  a  plan  of  writing  a  geological 
history  of  the  parish,  and  had  advanced  some  way 
in  the  task — not  without  much  copying  and  taking 
notes  and  extracts  on  the  part  of  Pie.  He  was  mu- 
sical in  a  marked  degree  for  a  man  of  his  age.  He 
could  not  endure  a  false  note  from  Pie  or  her  mother 
or  any  one  else,  and  when  there  was  a  family  con- 
cert, in  which  Mrs.  Stubbs  took  the  piano  and  Pie 
the  harp,  which  looked  grand  and  old-fashioned  in 
its  corner  of  the  parlor,  and  Mr.  Stubbs  the  violin, 
the  ladies  had  to  be  well  up  in  every  bar  else  they 
had  to  answer  for  it.  Even  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  to  sub- 
mit to  be  scolded  as  if  she  had  been  a  schoolgirl. 
She  always  behaved  admirably  under  the  scathing 
rebukes,  unless  we  except  the  trifling  circumstance 


'CURL  NEIGHBORS.  b? 

that  she  looked  rather  as  if  she  enjoyed  them,  for  a 
change. 

After  luncheon  was  the  period  of  the  day  for  par- 
ish work.  If  there  was  any  in  hand — and  there 
was  generally  a  good  deal,  since  the  vicar  worked 
his  parish  thoroughly,  and  in  the  working  did  not 
disdain  the  services  of  such  aides-de-camp  as  the 
ladies  at  the  cottage — Pie  had  the  lighter  half  of 
her  mother's  district  to  visit.  She  had  her  Sunday- 
school  class  to  keep  in  hand.  She  had  another  class 
in  the  vicar's  evening  school  when  it  was  in  oper- 
ation, to  which  she  was  escorted  in  winter  by  Lydia 
and  William  with  a  lantern.  She  had  her  reg- 
ular afternoon  for  the  cottage  hospital  when  there 
was  no  infectious  disease  in  the  place,  and  her  after- 
noon for  the  alms-houses.  She  helped  at  the  moth- 
ers' meeting  and  the  meeting  of  the  clothing 
society.  She  was  junior  secretary  of  the  Lending 
Library  for  boys  and  of  the  Girls'  Friendly 
Society. 

Occasionally  Pie  Stubbs  was  tempted  to  think, 
like  Harriet  Cotton,  with  rather  more  warrant  than 
Harriet  possessed,  that  she  (Pie)  was  decidedly  a 
useful  and  important  member  of  society.  She  had 
realized  the  desire  of  Mary  Carpenter  when  she  was 
a  little  child,  and  could  not  be  contented  to  play 


88  GIRL  NEIGHBORS., 

among  the  hay  in  the  field  after  she  had  seen  the 
haymakers  at  work.  "  I  want  to  be  oosef ul,  I  want 
to  be  ooseful,"  cried  the  embryo  philanthropist,  ex- 
pressing an  innate  craving  of  her  benevolent  nature. 
Pie  not  only  wanted  to  be  "  ooseful,"  she  could  not 
always  resist  feeling  herself  so  in  a  commendable 
degree  for  her  years.  Then  her  father  would  quiz 
her  with  canying  the  world  on  her  shoulder. 
Harry  would  nickname  her  "  my  Lady  Bountiful." 
Her  mother  would  remind  her  of  sundry  glaring 
blunders  and  failures  which  Pie  had  accomplished 
in  her  career  of  public  service.  But  what  impressed 
her  still  more  than  these  remarks,  and  gave  her  a 
wholesome  and  humble  sense  of  insignificance  after 
all,  was  when  Mrs.  Stubbs  would  talk  with  the  re- 
strained enthusiasm  which  the  subject  alwa}rs  called 
forth,  of  a  Avonderful  sister  of  hers  who  had  been 
the  stay  of  the  whole  family  in  a  season  of  adversity. 
Aunt  Nancy  had  kept  her  father's  accounts  when 
his  sight  had  given  way,  and  brought  order  out  of 
the  disorder  in  the  family  exchequer,  restoring  hope 
and  prudence  where  she  had  found  despair  and 
recklessness.  She  had  nursed  a  sick  mother — she 
had  taught  her  younger  sisters — she  had  made  and 
trimmed  her  own  and  their  frocks  and  bonnets — she 
had  contrived  to  provide  the  different  outfits  which 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  89 

had  enabled  her  brothers  to  go  abroad  furnished 
with  home  comforts.  When  Pie  listened  to  the 
achievements  of  this  notable  Aunt  Nancy,  whom  the 
girl  had  never  seen,  because  the  woman  had  died 
as  soon  as  her  work  was  done,  Pie  felt  her  own  poor 
performances  pale  to  a  shadow,  and  was  fain  to  hide 
her  diminished  head.  But  it  thrilled  her  like  the 
most  exquisite  flattery  if  her  mother  sometimes 
glanced  at  her,  and  broke  a  long  silence  b}^  saying 
abruptly,  "  I  could  almost  fancy  Pie,  you  are  getting 
a  look  of  my  sister  Nancy." 

Five-o'clock  tea  was  a  well-earned  refreshment, 
at  least  by  the  ladies  of  the  family  at  the  cottage. 
It  was  a  breathing  space  after  which  Pie  was  at 
full  liberty  to  read  for  an  hour  for  her  private  grati- 
fication. True,  the  book  had  a  provoking  habit  of 
being  at  its  best  just  when  she  knew  that  she  must 
get  ready  for  dinner.  In  the  same  way  she  was 
driven  to  think  that  the  sun  was  always  at  its  hot- 
test and  the  sultry  air  at  its  most  breathless  point, 
or  the  pelting  shower  was  at  its  heaviest,  when  it 
was  suggested  that  the  young  lady  of  the  house 
should  go  down  to  the  village  "  in  no  time,  Pie,"  to 
intercept  the  carrier,  or  secure  the  indispensable  con- 
diment, and  so  save  poor  cook  the  mortification  of 
discovering  an  omission  which  "  that  feather-head 


90  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Lydia  "  would  never  take  thought  to  anticipate  and 
prevent  on  such  occasions.  Sure  enough  Pie  would 
be  unable  to  shut  out  the  recollection  of  "  that  but- 
terfly girl  yonder,"  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  come  to 
style  Harriet  Cotton,  idly  tossing  about  the  tennis- 
balls  in  the  pleasant  shade  of  the  hazel  bushes,  or 
lying  at  full  length  with  her  arms  above  her  head, 
as  Pie  had  often  detected  her  neighbor  in  the  ham- 
mock swung  between  the  two  tall  larches,  with  a 
couple  of  volumes  of  a  book  stuffed  under  her  head 
and  one  open  in  her  hand.  Pie  had  seen  Miss  Cot- 
ton in  this  easy,  agreeable  attitude,  before  the 
Stubbs'  lunch,  when  Miss  Stubbs  was  on  one  of 
her  perfunctory  peregrinations  to  the  village. 
After  lunch  she  had  to  set  out  to  look  after  a  de- 
serter from  one  of  her  classes,  resident  in  a  cottage 
three  miles  distant,  and  there  Miss  Cotton  still  lay 
taking  her  ease,  possibly  with  her  first  volume  ex- 
changed for  her  second  or  third  when  Pie  plodded 
back  dusty  and  weary. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  liked  always  to  have  a  black  grena- 
dine frock  in  stock  for  Pie,  because  it  was  cool,  and 
looked — and  was  what  it  looked — fit  for  a  dinner 
dress  at  home.  The  black  grenadine  took  the  place 
of  the  morning  ginghams,  hollands,  and  tweeds  more 
frequently  than  any  white  frock,  which  meant  wash- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  91 

ing  and  doing  up.  Generally  Pie  found  no  fault 
with  the  grenadine,  which  was  as  comfortable  and 
as  little  troublesome  as  frock  could  be.  But  now 
and  then,  mostly  when  she  was  fretted  about  some- 
thing else,  she  conjured  up  contrasting  toilets  of 
every  soft  tint  and  tixture,  every  novel  and  graceful 
fashion,  such  as  would  entrance  the  fancy  of  any 
girl,  in  which  Pie  would  occasionally  see  Harriet 
standing  at  an  open  window  with  a  lamp  shining  be- 
hind her,  or  flitting  out  on  the  veranda  under  the  sun- 
set. But  Pie  had  never  long  enough  time  on  her 
hands  to  take  it  to  heart  that  her  frocks  and  fash- 
ions were  so  inferior,  for  she  forgot  all  about  them 
as  soon  as  she  went  down  to  the  dining-room.  Mrs. 
Stubbs  was  a  good  talker,  and  was  ready  to  give  an 
account,  with  considerable  spirit  and  a  lurking  sense 
of  fun,  of  her  afternoon's  engagements  and  adven- 
tures. Mr.  Stubbs  would  add  a  touch  of  dry  humor 
to  the  narrative,  or  would  caustically  com- 
ment on  what  he  had  read  in  the  news- 
papers, with  "the  country  going  to  the  dogs,  of 
course." 

After  dinner  there  was  more  sewing  to  be  done  in 
company  with  her  mother,  or  there  were  Pie's  special 
contributions  to  this  or  that  "  charity  basket "  or 
bazaar,  or  her  individual  attempts  at  fancy  work, 


92  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

which,  like  her  private  reading,  took  the  shape  of  a 
treat  entered  upon  with  girlish  ardor.  The  family 
music  made  a  break  in  the  routine,  but  the  working 
was  quite  compatible  with  family  reading,  that  is, 
reading  in  which  all  the  family  were  interested,  and 
would  join — each  faithfully  taking  his  or  her  turn  as 
reader.  Even  Mr.  Stubbs,  when  his  headache  would 
allow,  held  forth  in  his  deep,  somewhat  hollow  voice. 
Mrs.  Stubbs  aired  her  old-fashioned,  rather  precise 
pronunciation  and  punctuation.  As  for  Pie,  like 
the  rest  of  the  younger  generation,  she  could  not, 
though  she  had  some  practice,  manage  her  voice  so 
w  ell  as  her  seniors  could  command  theirs,  she  would 
let  it  fall,  and  be  authoritatively  summoned  to 
"  speak  out "  several  times  in  the  course  of  her  per- 
formance. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stubbs  played  a  game  at  pool  to- 
gether by  fits  and  starts — usually  when  he  was  not 
able  for  protracted  music  or  reading.  But  Pie  had 
always  a  couple  of  games  of  cribbage  with  her  father 
before  the  servants  came  in  to  prayers  and  her  busy 
day  was  ended.  Of  course  the  programme  was 
often  broken  in  upon  when  the  Stubbses  went  into 
company,  or  saw  it  at  home,  which  they  did  at  inter- 
vals, but  not  very  frequently.  The  truth  was,  that 
not  only  was  Mr.  Stubbs  too  much  of  a  valetudinarian 


GILIL  NEIGHBORS.  93 

to  care  to  have  his  ordinary  habits  often  disturbed, 
his  retiring  allowance  was  not  great,  while  from  it 
he  and  his  wife  were  fain  to  save  money  in  order  to 
increase  the  provision  for  whoever  of  the  family 
was  left  behind  him  when  his  time  came. 

But  the  greatest  alteration  in  the  daily  round 
occurred  when  Harry  was  at  home.  He  claimed 
almost  a  monopoly  of  his  sister's  society,  and  Mrs. 
Stubbs,  though  she  could  not  be  said  to  spoil  either 
of  her  children,  allowed  his  claim.  She  had  a  great 
idea  of  the  rights  of  men  and  the  duties  of  women, 
and  she  regarded  it  as  nearly  as  much  Pie's  duty  to 
entertain  Harry  when  he  was  at  home,  as  to  help 
her  father  and  mother  at  all  times.  From  the  ex- 
citing moment  when  Pie  started  for  the  station  to 
meet  her  brother  and  drive  or  walk  home  with  him 
to  that  other  depressing  epoch  of  his  departure  she 
was  understood  to  be,  nothing  loth,  at  Harry's  beck 
and  call.  Any  other  obligation  that  could  be  set 
aside  was  deferred  for  the  nonce.  Pie  relished  this 
and  every  other  relaxation  with  a  keen  youthful 
zest  which  even  youth  does  not  experience  in  its  full- 
ness, unless  the  lessons  of  discipline,  self-denial,  and 
patience  have  been  learned  betimes,  and  work  pre- 
cedes play.  Withal  the  gayeties  were  not  so  many 
and  so  brilliant  that  Pie  did  not  look  on  wistfully 


94  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

when  the  manor  house  had  its  full  tale  of  company. 
Then  Harriet  no  longer  played  tennis  alone,  but  was 
one  in  a  lively  party  of  young  people.  Picnics  were 
the  order  of  every  fine  day,  and  Pie  from  a  dozen 
convenient  recesses  in  the  cottage  shrubbery,  nay, 
from  within  the  cottage  door,  could  hear  the  rattle 
of  the  wheels,  the  tread  of  the  horses'  feet,  the  echo 
of  the  jests  and  laughter,  when  the  Cottons  and  their 
visitors  set  out  on  a  pleasant  excursion. 

Mr.  Cotton  returned  the  hospitalities  of  the  neigh- 
borhood by  dinners  and  evening  parties — of  more 
than  one  of  which  all  who  had  the  luck  to  be  in- 
vited talked  delightedly  both  before  and  after  the 
entertainment.  He  \vas  a  liberal  and  good-natured 
host,  and  so  young  a  hostess  as  Harriet,  with  one  or 
other  of  her  married  sisters  in  her  train,  though  not 
so  popular  as  her  father,  was  a  novelty  among  the 
party-givers  round  Maidsmeado\vs. 

On  these  occasions  poor  Pie  used  to  have  a  strange 
sensation  for  so  good  and  highly  esteemed  a  girl  in 
her  native  place.  She  felt  as  if  she  had  somehow 
suddenly  become  an  alien,  a  peri  expelled  from 
paradise,  before  she  so  much  as  knew  what  paradise 
was  like. 

Certainly  every  acquaintance  she  had  known  be- 
fore liked  her  as  well  as  ever,  but  she  did  not  seem 


Ql&L  NMGU&ORS.  95 

to  belong  to  them  when  they  were  all  speaking  with 
interest  of  something  with  which  she  had  nothing  to 
do.  She  saw  the  manor  house  with  every  window 
lit  up  for  its  guests,  and  she  pictured  to  herself  a 
dazzling  phantasmagoria  of  flowers  and  lights,  pretty 
dresses,  fine  music  brought  all  the  way  from  town, 
and  pleasant  partners  with  wonderful  fates  to  be 
met,  and  great  events  to  happen  from  small  begin- 
nings. At  last,  being  very  young  and  human,  a 
lump  would  rise  in  Pie's  throat,  which  she  had  some 
difficulty  in  swallowing,  before  she  went  down  se- 
dately or  with  forced  gayety  to  join  the  quiet  home 
circle — the  occupations  and  amusements  of  which 
appeared  this  night  so  flat  and  tame. 

"  You  are  not  hankering  after  forbidden  fruit, 
Pie  ? "  her  mother  would  inquire  sharply.  "  It  is 
beyond  your  reach  in  more  senses  than  one.  The 
foolish  extravagance  of  these  people  at  the  manor 
house  is  both  wrong  in  itself,  and  demoralizing  in 
its  effects  on  others.  Real  turtle  soup,  as  if  mock- 
turtle  had  not  sufficed  for  better  people,  at  their  last 
dinner,  and  for  the  evening  parties  baskets  of  forced 
fruit  at  half  a  guinea  apiece,  though  it  is  grown  in 
the  manor  house  hothouses,  put  down  here  and 
there  all  through  the  corridors  and  conservatories. 
The  man  may  be  another  Aladdin  and  may  take  good 


96  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

care  not  to  lose  his  lamp,  but  we  are  not  Aladdins. 
Even  if  we  had  visited  him,  I  should  not  care  to 
accept  a  style  of  hospitality  I  could  never  return  in 
kind  unless  I  were  guilty  of  what  in  us  would  be 
prodigality.  Why,  you  have  not  a  dress  in  which  you 
could  pass  muster  among  troops  of  butterflies  at  one 
of  these  regular  dinners,  for  which  you  are  a  great 
deal  too  young  also." 

"The  Fieldings  are  going,  and  so  are  the  Hunts," 
said  Pie,  feebly,  "  and  they  are  no  richer  than  we 
are.  Fanny  and  Mary  Fielding,  and  Kate  Hunt, 
who  is  just  my  age,  were  not  any  better  dressed 
than  I  formerly. 

"  Then  I  am  heartily  sorry  for  them,  since  they 
will  cut  poor  figures  in  such  fine  company,"  said 
Mrs.  Stubbs  with  decision.  "  Or  if  they,  or  their 
friends  for  them,  have  made  a  desperate  effort  to 
bridge  over  the  gulf  between  wealth  and  small  com- 
petences, then  they  must  pay  the  price  sooner  or 
later,  and  the  game  will  not  be  worth  the  candle. 
But  the  wretched  propensity  to  waste  the  candle  in 
such  a  mad  race  is  one  of  the  demoralizing  effects 
of  contact  with  wealth  of  which  I  have  often 
spoken.  Be  thankful,  Pie,  that  you  and  yours  have 
escaped  it." 

"  Yes,  Pie,  be  thankful  for  your  post  of  Diogenes 


Ul.lL  NEIGHBORS.  97 

in  his  tub,"  said  Mr.  Stubbs  with  a  twinkle  in  his 
eyes ;  and  the  notion  of  herself  in  the  character  of 
Diogenes  certainly  diverted  Pie's  mind,  and  caused 
her  to  smile  a  little,  as  her  father  intended  her  to 
do,  which  was  perhaps  better  for  her  than  trying  to 
dwell  on  the  folly  and  mischief  of  such  festivities, 
and  seeking  to  make  believe  that  she  did  not  wish 
to  join  in  them.  She  could  discuss  the  question 
much  more  coolly  and  comfortably  next  morning. 

The  unkindest  cut  of  all  was  Avhen  Harriet  Cotton 
and  her  company  blossomed  into  private  theatricals. 
Pie  had  the  greatest  curiosity  to  see  how  they  were 
managed,  and  to  share  in  them,  particularly  after 
Harry  had  been  allowed  to  join  a  dramatic  company 
of  amateurs,  the  existence  of  which  was  permitted 
by  his  vice-chancellor  and  the  dean  of  his  college. 

After  that  precedent  she  did  not  suppose  that 
there  could  still  prevail  the  prudent  objection  to  the 
intimate  association  of  young  people  in  private 
theatricals  which  Jane  Austen  had  urged  in  "  Mans- 
field Park."  Either  youth  had  grown  more  indiffer- 
ent to  such  influences  or  social  opinion  had  altered 
with  regard  to  them.  Pie  could  afford  to  lose  a  din- 
ner, but  she  could  ill  afford  to  lose  the  rare  chance 
of  having  to  do  with  private  theatricals.  It  ought 
to  have  been  some  consolation  that  they  would  have 


98  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

been  put  out  of  her  power  in  another  way.  Mrs. 
Stubbs  was  as  rigidly  opposed  to  amateur  theatricals 
as  ever  Sir  Thomas  Bertram  had  shown  himself  to 
be.  "  I  should  never  have  listened  to  your  being 
mixed  up  with  such  a  more  than  doubtful  proceed- 
ing," the  lady  asserted,  "  not  though  you  had  been 
twice  your  age.  As  it  is,  you  are  a  great  deal  too 
young  even  for  small  country  gayeties,  and  I  would 
not  hear  of  them  for  you,  only  I  don't  want  to  make 
a  fuss  and  a  pretense  of  your  not  having  come  out, 
as  if  we  were  to  go  up  to  town  next  year,  or  the 
year  after,  and  you  were  to  be  presented  to  the 
queen,  and  have  a  season's  dissipation  in  due  form. 
But  to  be  dressed  up  like  an  idiot  of  a  great  lady, 
or  a  pert  waiting  maid,  and  spout  love  and  hatred 
or  flippant  impertinence,  and  have  them  spouted 
back  to  you  by  men  and  women  you  have  only  seen 
within  the  last  fortnight — and  it  may  be  as  well  if 
you  never  see  them  again — before  a  set  of  people 
who  are  principally  employed  in  laughing  at  your 
clumsy  blunders,  is  what  I  never  could  consent  to 
for  any  daughter  of  mine.  Mr.  Cotton  is  an  easy- 
minded,  over-indulgent  father,  but  I  am  astonished 
to  find  that  even  he  can  stand  it  for  that  spoiled, 
foolish  girl." 

"But   Harry  does  it  at  college,  mother,"  pro- 
tested Pie. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  99 

"  Harry  is  a  lad  and  not  a  girl,"  said  his  mother, 
"  and  his  dean  and  the  heads  of  his  college  and 
university  are  accountable  for  his  joining  in  such  a 
performance,  not  I." 

"And,  mother,  what  do  you  call  acted  pro- 
verbs ? "  persisted  Pie,  goaded  into  mild  rebellion. 
"  The  Fieldings  got  them  up,  and  sold  the  tickets 
for  them  too  " — as  if  that  last  act  put  the  finishing 
stroke  to  the  enormity  of  the  deed — "to  help  the 
vicar  to  pay  off  the  debt  on  his  new  class-rooms. 
The  vicar  took  the  money  and  countenanced  the  ex- 
hibition. We  all  went,  and  were  greatly  amused." 

"  Well,  Pie,"  replied  her  mother  cautiously,  "  I 
don't  say  that  the  end  justified  the  means,  but  I  do 
say  again  that  here  the  vicar  and  Mrs.  Fielding,  not 
I,  were  accountable." 

"And  you  do  not  take  into  account,  Pie,"  said 
her  father  with  the  utmost  gravity,  "  what  a  moral 
difference  there  is  between  an  acted  proverb  or  a 
charade,  and  a  play,  especially  when  the  last  is  well 
and  the  former  ill  done.  There  is  something  so  art- 
less about  a  play  called  by  another  name,  and  acted 
without  a  particle  of  skill  or  talent,  that  one  can  no 
more  have  the  heart  to  call  it  by  the  old  bad  names 
which  in  some  senses  it  richly  deserves,  than  one 
can  fall  foul  of  the  mimic  games  of  children." 


100  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

All  that  Pie  was  destined  to  learn  of  how  well 
Harriet  Cotton  looked  and  spoke  as  "  King  Renee's 
Daughter  "  was  by  hearsay. 

It  was  doubtful  whether  all  these  arguments  and 
declarations  of  what  might  not  have  been,  even 
though  the  Stubbses  had  visited  the  Cottons,  did 
much  to  reconcile  Pie  for  having  to  suffer  ostracism 
where  her  nearest  neighbors  were  concerned.  She 
certainly  thought  that  Harry  would  consider  being 
snut  out  from  the  manor  house,  especially  in  the  so- 
cial lead  which  it  had  appropriated,  a  hard  case. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  101 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   NEW-FASHIONED   BUTTERFLY. 

APART  from  the  dinner-hour,  which  was  always 
eight  o'clock,  meal-times  at  the  manor  house  were 
much  more  irregular  than  at  the  cottage,  and  they 
were  specially  irregular  when  they  had  to  do  with 
Harriet.  If  Mr.  Cotton  breakfasted  at  different 
hours,  just  as  he  went  to  town  by  the  early  train  or 
walked  over  to  his  beloved  farm,  Harriet,  who  had 
neither  train  nor  farm  to  think  of,  and  who  had  got 
into  the  habit  of  not  breakfasting  with  her  father 
unless  when  there  were  visitors  in  the  house,  di- 
verged still  more  widely  from  any  set  time.  Occa- 
sionally she  would  take  a  fit  of  very  early  rising,  and 
would  shame  the  maid-servants  by  being  abroad 
before  six  o'clock  in  order  to  hear  the  birds  sing. 
But  generally  this  earty  bout  was  followed  by  one 
late  in  proportion,  when  her  coffee  would  be  brought 
into  the  breakfast-parlor  and  carried  out  again 
several  times,  and  she  would  at  last  drink  it  luke- 
warm between  eleven  and  twelve  in  the  forenoon. 


102  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Poor  Harriet  did  many  more  things  by  fits  and 
starts.  She  would  go  about  brandishing  her  suze- 
rainship  as  the  young  mistress  of  the  house,  and 
putting  even  Mrs.  Walls  on  her  mettle ;  then  she 
would  forget  all  about  it,  or  get  sick  of  it,  lay  down 
as  it  were,  her  crown  and  scepter,  lose  all  her  keys 
for  a  period  of  days,  after  which  she  would  find  the 
keys  and  take  up  the  crown  and  scepter  again,  to 
wield  them  briskly  for  another  interval.  In  the 
meantime  the  house  went  on  much  in  the  same  fash- 
ion, with  the  wheels  of  the  domestic  machinery  well 
oiled,  as  wealth  can  oil  them,  and  a  humble  but 
capable  charioteer  like  Mrs.  "Walls  always  in  the 
background. 

Harriet  conducted  her  pursuit  of  knowledge  after 
a  like  intermittent  and  vehement  mode.  She  was  a 
clever  girl,  in  some  respects  far  cleverer  than  Pie  ; 
and  while  Harriet  labored  under  the  disadvantage  of 
lacking  the  other's  methodical  training,  she  had  pos- 
sessed the  counterbalancing  gain  of  commanding  far 
wider  and  more  diverse  sources  of  instruction.  For 
one  thing  she  had  been  taken  a  good  deal  about  the 
world  for  her  age,  and  had  been  repeatedly  on  the 
Continent ;  while  Pie  had  never  been  out  of  Eng- 
land, and  not  even  many  times  up  in  London.  Har- 
riet had  a  certain  thirst  for  information.  She  cer- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  103 

tainly  liked  exceedingly  to  know  everything  that 
any  one  else  knew,  and  to  be  able  to  show  that  she 
knew  it.  But  she  went  about  her  acquisition  of 
knowledge  in  a  desultory,  uncertain  way,  as  she  was 
pretty  sure  to  do  when  she  had  not  the  passion  or 
concentration  of  genius,  and  when  she  was  doing 
just  as  she  liked,  without  any  higher  or  surer  motive 
for  her  actions.  She  did  not  mean  to  do  harm.  Nay, 
deep  down  in  the  lonely  girlish  soul,  though  she 
would  not  have  confessed  it  for  the  world,  because 
Harriet  had  a  peculiar,  well-nigh  morbid,  hatred  of 
making  professions — she  had  an  honest  wish  to  (Jo 
right — the  unquestionable  right  of  which  her  Bible 
and  prayer-book  told  her.  She  felt  this  in  the  still- 
ness and  solemnity  of  church,  when  her  soul  rose 
above  counteracting  influences,  and  was,  in  some 
measure,  in  tune  for  God's  worship.  She  felt  it  also 
in  the  quieter,  more  earnest  moments  of  her  life. 
Harriet  would  take  up  the  last  most  thorough  geo- 
graphical work,  or  bit  of  history  probed  to  the  core, 
or  sample  of  French  criticism,  or  German  poetry,  or 
mystical  analysis  of  art.  She  would  plunge  into  it, 
sink  herself  over  head  and  ears  in  it,  engross  herself 
with  it,  endeavor  to  make  herself  mistress  of  it  in  an 
incredibly  short  space  of  time  ;  and,  after  grasping 
it  desperately  till  her  head  reeled  and  ached,  drop  it 


104  GIRL  NEfGHBORS. 

as  if  it  burned  her  fingers,  disheartened,  disappointed 
and  disgusted,  till  the  next  fit  of  study  seized  her. 
Between  the  fits  she  would  gallop  through  novels 
by  the  cart-load,  reading  voraciously,  and  at  the 
same  time  skipping  shamelessly,  digesting  nothing 
and  remembering  marvelously  little,  which,  after  all 
was  a  piece  of  good  fortune,  since  for  the  most  part 
there  was  very  little  worth  remembering.  The  fact 
that  she  contracted  small  injury,  even  to  her  taste, 
was  principally  because  she  was  familiar  with  good 
literature,  and  because  she  was  clever  enough  to  see 
through  a  great  deal,  not  only  of  the  falsehood,  the 
gross  exaggeration,  and  the  crying  unnatural  ness, 
but  of  the  sophistry  amid  which  she  waded,  or  rather 
plunged.  Sometimes  the  attraction  presented  was 
so  slight  that  she  would  drop  asleep  over  her  novel, 
like  her  elderly  father  over  his  newspaper,  or  would 
send  back  the  books  to  the  library  half  read,  without 
paying  the  small  compliment  to  the  author  of  turn- 
ing up  the  last  page  or  two  to  see  what  became  of 
his  or  her  puppets. 

The  worst  result  of  this  style  of  reading  in  Har- 
riet was  the  fostering  in  her  of  that  spirit  of  cavil- 
ing and  contempt — in  some  respects  the  spirit  of 
her  generation — which  came  so  easily  to  her.  She 
despised  the  books  and  spoke  of  them  in  the  most 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  105 

scornful  terms  even  when  she  must  have  confessed 
to  being  indebted  to  them  for  the  power  of  passing 
the  time.  If  she  had  known  the  writers  she 
would  have  despised  them  also,  though  they  had 
catered  for  her  amusement  in  the  best  manner  they 
could,  as  well  as  worked  in  the  hope  of  having  their 
wages.  Harriet  Cotton  was  constantly  tempted 
to  despise  the  insincerities  and  inconsistencies  of 
her  acquaintances  and  friends,  even,  alas !  of  her 
nearest  and  dearest,  while  she  hated  herself  for  it. 

She  persuaded  herself  that  she  wanted  nobody  to 
direct  and  encourage  her,  yet  it  was  for  the  lack  of 
this  help  that  she  floundered  and  failed  hope- 
lessly in  her  attempts  at  keeping  up  her  edu- 
cation single-handed.  Her  father  was  well  born 
and  college-bred,  as  he  had  said.  He  was  inca- 
pable of  the  wild  lapses  in  grammar  and  in  ordi- 
nary knowledge  frequently  attributed  to  merchant 
princes  who  have  made  their  firms  and  their  for- 
tunes. But  he  was  only  a  man  of  ordinary  ability 
and  culture.  He  was  just  liberal  enough  to  prize 
greater  attainments  when  they  came  in  his  way, 
though  he  had  been  too  long  and  closely  engaged  in 
commercial  warfare  to  pick  up  the  arts  of  leisure  and 
peace.  He  had  more  common  than  uncommon 
sense,  and  more  of  sheer  kindliness  than  of 
either. 


106  61RI*  NEIGHBOUR 

Mr.  Cotton  could  be  no  tutor  for  his  danghter 
even  if  he  had  possessed  both  the  time  and  the  in- 
clination, and  perhaps  he  was  right  when  he  judged 
that  she  was  better  left  alone,  and  that  she  would 
not  get  on  well  with  a  governess  or  resident 
chaperon.  No  doubt  he  yielded  to  his  desire  to 
please  "  Harry  "  in  coming  to  this  conclusion  ;  but 
it  must  be  said  also  that  he  could  contradict  her 
when  he  saw  fit,  and  that  though  he  might  err  on 
the  side  of  amiability  he  could  not  be  called  a  weak 
man. 

It  is  much  easier  to  write  the  record  of  Pie  Stubbs' 
life,  a  life  at  one  time  next  to  universal  in  its  main 
features  among  healthy,  happy,  well-brought-up 
English  girls,  than  to  chronicle  Harriet  Cotton's 
daily  doings,  through  which  there  ran  an 
erratic,  unstable  thread  that  effected  all  her  actions 
and  would  have  done  so  still  more  if  the 
girl  had  not  been  inherently  strong-minded  and 
clear-headed. 

When  Mr.  Cotton  was  in  town,  and  neither  one 
of  her  sisters  nor  any  one  else  was  with  Harriet, 
she  hardly  did  anything  at  the  same  time  and  in 
the  same  order  two  days  on  end,  except  eating  her 
dinner,  and  that  she  did  by  the  combined  decrees  of 
her  father  and  the  cook.  Let  us  hope  she  was  igno- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  107 

rant  of  the  trouble  she  gave  and  the  disorder  she 
caused  by  her  whims  and  fancies.  She  would  send 
out  to  a  groom,  just  when  he  had  arranged  to  do 
his  share  in  cleaning  the  harness  or  the  stables,  and 
say  she  was  going  to  ride  or  drive  before  luncheon, 
keeping  her  word.  Next  day,  when  he  was  foolish 
enough  to  hang  about  expecting  similar  orders,  she 
Avould  let  him  remain  idle  the  whole  morning  and 
afternoon,  and  only  go  out  for  twenty  minutes  or 
so,  when  it  was  not  worth  while  having  out  the 
horses,  and  they  had  to  come  scuttling  home  for 
dinner.  She  had  no  sense,  the  middle-aged  groom 
would  say,  though  she  was  a  clever  young  lady,  of 
the  consideration  horses  required  in  frost,  or  in  hot 
weather.  She  paid  no  heed  to  keeping  them  stand- 
ing still  while  she  was  making  calls,  or  getting  out 
of  her  saddle  or  out  of  the  carriage  and  "  trapesing 
about "  after  wild  flowers  and  such  rubbish  till  she 
was  tired.  She  never  calculated  that  she  might 
wear  beasts  out  by  taking  them  long  rounds  day 
after  day,  and  that  it  did  not  make  up  for  it  to  let 
them  have  no  exercise,  so  far  as  she  was  concerned, 
for  the  next  week  or  fortnight.  To  be  sure  not 
much  sense  could  be  expected  from  so  young  a  lady 
on  such  subjects,  but  Miss  Cotton  did  not  care  to  be 
told — more's  the  pity ! — by  them  "  as  ought  to  have 


108  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

known  best."  Indeed  all  the  servants  had  the  con- 
viction that  it  would  not  do  to  contradict  Miss  Cot- 
ton. If  Harriet  had  done  nothing  else,  she  had 
impressed  them  with  a  sense  of  her  strength  of 
will. 

There  were  only  two  obligations  which  Harriet 
fulfilled  with  any  punctuality.  She  was  a  bad  cor- 
respondent to  her  sisters,  but  when  her  father  was 
in  town  she  wrote  to  him  every  day  faithfully,  and 
conveyed  to  him  the  details  he  cared  for.  She  hud 
been  known  to  go  over  to  the  farm  through  mud 
and  mire,  and  worry  the  bailiff  and  laborers  half 
out  of  their  wits,  in  order  to  let  Mr.  Cotton  have 
the  last  news  of  the  state  of  his  hay  and  his 
turnips. 

And  Harriet  daily  arranged  the  flowers  for  the 
table  and  the  various  rooms,  all  the  time  scoffing 
at  the  very  young  ladylike  nature  of  the  work. 
"  "We  used  to  be  bread-and-butter  misses,"  she  re 
minded  herself,  "but  that  was  in  the  benighted 
days  when  we  were  not  above  darning  stockings 
and  making  puddings  and  were  devoted  to  worsted 
work.  Now  we  are  flower-girls  of  the  upper  classes 
— every  novel  refers  to  the  heroine  at  some  time  in 
the  course  of  her  novel  life,  putting  flowers  in  a  jar 
or  bowl,  or  wreathing  them  into  garlands  to  decor- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  109 

ate  a  church.  We  are  not  supposed  to  condescend 
to  any  less  graceful  employment.  If  we  do  work 
we  knit  babies'  socks,  which  is  odd,  for  English 
women,  as  a  rule,  are  not  knitters,  and  there  cannot 
be  always  babies  known  to  us  wanting  socks.  It  is 
more  accountable  that  we  should  sew  parish  flan- 
nels, though  there  again  it  seems  bad  economy, 
when  we  might  employ  poor  women  who  would  do 
them  much  better,  and  earn  an  honest  penny  by 
sewing  them. 

The  speaker  would  dawdle  about  the  greenhouses 
and  the  gardens  spending  more  hours  than  Pie 
would  have  had  minutes  to  spare  over  the  pleasant 
task.  The  truth  was  Harriet  felt  the  urgent  neces- 
sity for  some  occupation,  or  make-believe  at  occupa- 
tion, and  she  could  not  endure  Mrs.  Walls'  manner 
of  disposing  of  the  flowers,  in  which  there  was  a 
strong  inclination  to  form  gorgeous  groups  in  the 
style  of  the  old  Flemish  flower-pieces — good  in  the 
pictures  but  bad  in  the  originals.  Miss  Cotton 
made  the  most  of  what  she  had  to  do  by  being  as 
long  about  doing  it  as  possible.  She  would  go 
round  dangling  the  flowers  till  they  were  limp  and 
drooping  in  her  grasp,  and  she  had  to  fling  half  of 
them  away  before  she  was  finished  with  them.  She 
wandered  all  over  the  place  till  she  was  guilty  of 


no  OIHL  NEIGHBORS. 

trespassing  on  the  cottage  grounds  after  some  bud 
or  berry,  like  the  rich  man  coveting  the  poor  man's 
ewe-lamb.  She  pulled  the  handiwork,  with  which 
."$he  was  never  pleased,  to  pieces  half-a-dozen  times, 
"making  no  end  of  litter,"  the  housemaid  com- 
plained. 

"When  Mr.  Cotton  was  at  home  he  wanted  little 
from  his  daughter  except  her  presence  and  that  she 
should  look  well  and  happy,  which  she  was  far  from 
doing  always.  She  had  then  no  need  to  continue 
to  acquaint  herself  with  farming  operations,  in  order 
to  repeat  them  to  him,  for  he  could  see  them  for 
himself,  and  as  he  had  a  correct  idea  that  she  did 
not  care  for  wheat  and  barley,  sheep  and  fat  pigs 
on  their  own  account,  he  did  not  press  her  to  accom- 
pany him  in  his  daily  expeditions  to  inspect  his 
treasures.  He  was  not  a  man  who  had  ever  de- 
pended much  on  the  women  of  his  family  for  sym- 
pathy in  his  pursuits. 

Withal  the  days  and  nights  had  a  trick  of  drag- 
ging slowly  with  Harriet  Cotton  at  the  manor-house, 
so  that,  though  she  professed  to  be  independent,  she 
was  glad  to  welcome  the  arrival  of  one  of  her  sis- 
ters, or  any  other  company,  "  only  for  a  little  va- 
riety," she  said  listlessly. 

It  was  impossible  that  the  Stubbses  and  Cottons 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  Ill 

could  live  for  any  length  of  time  together,  even 
though  they  had  been  in  far  less  proximity,  in  the 
same  country  neighborhood,  without  encountering 
each  other  in  the  houses  of  common  acquaintances 
— some  o  f  whom  were  so  lost  to  etiquette  and  so 
meddlesome,  so  injudicious  altogether,  as  to  intro- 
duce various  members  of  the  respective  families. 
Mr.  Stubbs  had  been  forced  to  meet  Mr.  Cotton  on 
business,  so  that,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  said,  the  worst 
was  over  for  him.  Mrs.  Stubbs  carried  off  the  in- 
troduction as  she  carried  off  most  things.  She 
availed  herself  of  her  privilege  as  much  the  older 
woman,  took  the  initiative,  and  decided  that  a  slight 
bow  was  the  point  at  which  her  greetings  to  Mr. 
and  Miss  Cotton  should  begin  and  end. 

It  was  worse  for  the  girls,  who  were  contempo- 
raries, and  ought  to  have  been  natural  allies.  Both 
felt  strangely  familiar  from  having  seen  each  other 
so  often  and  speculated  on  each  other  so  much. 
Both  felt  also  strangely  stiff  and  stupid,  though  Pie 
showed  it  more  than  the  other,  because  Pie  was 
much  less  of  a  woman  of  the  world  and  less  able  to 
hide  her  feelings,  while  she  was  better  qualified  to 
rule  her  spirit. 

Once  there  had  been  a  little  opening  of  the  closed 
doors,  which  had  closed  again  immediately,  and 


112  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

served  but  to  prove  the  inaccessibility  of  human 
nature  when  thus  artificially  warped  and  fortified. 
The  vicar  revived  the  idea  of  a  penny  reading,  and 
pressed  all  the  young  ladies  of  his  parish  into  his 
service.  He  had  already  tried  to  enlist  Harriet 
Cotton  as  a  young  parish  work-woman,  but  had 
speedily  desisted  for  two  reasons.  The  motion  did 
not  meet  with  her  father's  approval  any  more  than 
with  her  own.  Mr.  Cotton  thought  Harriet  delicate 
and  in  all  respects  too  precious  to  be  exposed  to  the 
remotest  risk  of  injury  for  the  public  good.  The 
vicar  had  his  own  suspicions  that  Harriet  would  not 
be  the  right  woman  in  the  right  place  if  she  were 
set  to  perform  light  duties — which  were  so  admira- 
bly discharged  by  Pie  Stubbs  for  instance — as 
teacher  of  a  junior  class  in  the  Sunday  or  day  school, 
or  as  one  of  the  juniors  secretaries  of  one  or  two  of 
his  many  clubs.  But  for  some  occult  reason  the 
penny  reading  took  Harriet's  fancy,  and  she  entered 
on  the  project  with  an  approach  to  girlish  zeal. 
The  meeting  of  the  volunteer  performers  took  place 
at  the  vicarage,  and  both  Pie  and  Harriet  were  there. 
There  was  no  question  of  what  Pie's  contribution  to 
the  entertainment  should  be.  She  was  to  play  a 
selection  of  popular  airs  on  the  vicar's  piano,  sent  to 
the  parish  schoolroom  for  the  occasion,  and  her 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  113 

father  was  to  accompany  her  on  his  violin.  But 
when  the  time  drew  near  for  the  readings  he  was 
more  out  of  health  than  usual,  and  Mrs.  Stubbs 
would  not  hear  of  his  making  the  exertion.  Pie 
went  to  the  vicarage  to  announce  with  regret  and 
mortification  the  breakdown  of  their  quota  to  the 
programme.  Harriet  Cotton  had  arranged  to  help 
with  the  shades  of  a  magio-lantern,  which  anybody 
could  do.  "When  she  heard  of  the  withdrawal  of 
Mr.  Stubbs  she  was  impelled  to  offer  to  take  his 
place.  She  could  play  the  violin,  as  everybody 
knew,  for  she  had  taken  away  the  breath  of  the 
natives  with  the  new  feminine  accomplishment,  first 
when  the  Cottons  came  to  the  manor  house.  She 
believed  she  was  equal  to  the  violin  accompaniment 
to  the  popular  airs.  The  vicar  cried  "  Bravo ! " 
from  a  double  motive.  Pie  could  not  give  credit  to 
the  testimony  of  her  ears — at  the  same  time  she  felt 
shy  and  wondered  what  her  mother  would  say.  It 
might  be  taken  for  granted  that  Miss  Cotton 
could  count  on  entire  impunity  from  any  censure  on 
her  easy-going  father's  part  for  what  she  proposed 
to  do. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  shook  her  head,  but  said  nothing 
against  the  wish  of  her  vicar,  though  Mr.  Stubbs  was 
so  exasperating  as  to  suggest,  did  the  clergyman  de- 


114  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

sire  to  give  an  example  of  fraternization  under  diffi- 
culties for  the  public  benefit? 

By  tacit  consent  it  was  fixed  that  the  necessary 
practice  and  rehearsals  of  the  two  girls  together 
should  take  place  on  the  debatable  territories  of  the 
vicarage  drawing  room,  and  finally  of  the  school- 
room. It  was  a  remarkably  grave,  almost  solemn 
practice,  the  only  thing  that  was  peculiar  about  it 
being  that  Pie,  who  played  the  more  correctly  of 
the  two,  could  not  take  it  upon  her  to  call  back  Har- 
riet when  she  went  astray.  It  was  Harriet 
who,  Avhenever  she  was  aware  she  was  wrong, 
called  herself  back  punctiliously.  "  There  I  was  in 
fault,"  "There  again  I  left  out  a  couple  of 
notes,"  "  Now  I  am  not  keeping  time."  But 
she  did  not  stop  there.  She  did  not  hesitate  to 
pounce  upon  her  partner  in  the  duet  for  every 
supposed  error.  "  You  are  hurrying.  Miss  Stubbs ; 
you  are  flurried."  "  Now  you  have  gone  to 
the  opposite  extreme :  you  don't  expect  me  to 
wait  for  you,  do  you  ? "  "  What  are  you  about  ? 
Oh,  I  see  it  is  I  who  should  cone  in.  I  beg  your 
pardon." 

When  the  night  of  the  penny  reading  arrived  even 
Harriet,  though  she  had  played  her  violin  when  her 
father's  drawing-room  was  full,  was  put  out.  She 


Q1RL  NEIGHBORS.  115 

had  never  before  played  to  so  many  people,  strang- 
ers of  all  ranks.  "  Do  you  really  think  we  can  do 
it  ? "  she  asked  Pie,  without  naming  her,  as  the  two 
stood  together,  Harriet  in  one  of  her  delicate-hued 
costumes,  with  some  of  the  jewels  which  her  father 
lavished  upon  her  on  her  neck  and  arms  ;  Pie  in  her 
white  frock,  with  her  locket  on  its  little  gold  chain 
and  the  bangle  Harry  had  given  her  on  her  wrist. 

Pie  was  turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  piece  of 
music.  Harriet  was  tightening  her  fiddle-bow. 
"  Sha'n't  we  break  down  ? "  she  observed  with  a 
little  trepidation. 

"  No,  I  don't  think  so,"  Pie  said  reassuringly, 
while  she  also  abstained  from  mentioning  her  com- 
panion's name.  "  I  have  played  here  before  with 
my  father.  Of  course  it  was  a  great  thing  to  have 
him,  for  he  did  not  mind,  only  he  can't  bear  a  false 
note  at  any  time.  But  somehow  the  excitement 
seemed  to  carry  me  through." 

Pie  and  Harriet  played  together  quite  creditably, 
and  were  much  applauded.  The  singular  sight  in 
Maidsmeadows,  of  a  young  lady  playing  a  fiddle  in 
company  with  another  young  lady  manipulating  a 
much  tamer  instrument  was  enough  in  itself  to  cover 
the  players  with  eclat. 

"  I  think    we    did    wonderfully  well,"  said  Pie 


116  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

brightly  when  she  rose  from  the  piano,  though  she 
still  addressed  an  anonymous  person. 

u  I  know  you  kept  time  perfectly,  and  were  not 
disturbed  by  that  stumble  of  mine,"  Harriet 
responded  with  a  gleam  of  gratification  and  of 
gratitude  in  her  dark  eyes. 

The  next  time  the  girls  chanced  to  encounter  each 
other  it  was  not  without  a  little  throb  of  expectation 
on  Pie's  part ;  but  Harriet  had  one  of  her  sisters 
with  her,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  penny  reading. 
She  stared  blankly  at  the  stranger,  and  Harriet,  not 
without  a  slight  flush  of  discomfiture,  gave  for  greet- 
ing only  the  small  bow  which  was  the  formal  token 
of  recognition  between  the  Stubbses  and  the  Cot- 
tons. Their  state  of  non-acquaintance  appeared 
more  hopeless  than  ever  after  that  small  beginning 
of  friendliness  was  nipped  in  the  bud. 

The  slumbering  old  antagonism  and  prejudice 
sprang  up  with  new  vigor.  It  was  "  these  people," 
"  that  girl,"  on  both  sides,  until  the  conviction  was 
established  in  the  Stubbs'  mind  that  Mr.  Cotton 
was  a  frivolous,  worldly-minded  elderly  gentleman, 
and  that  Harriet  Cotton  was  a  flippant,  embryo  fine 
lady,  without  heart  or  soul,  and  incapable  of 
improvement. 

On  the  Cottons'  part  there  was  an  equally  strong 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  117 

impression  that  the  Stubbses  were  a  set  of  self- 
righteous,  arrogant  fanatics ;  with  Pie  a  conceited, 
fussy  puppet,  congenial  clay  in  the  hands  of  the 
potters. 

Time  went  without  altering  the  relations  between 
the  manor  house  and  the  cottage.  Weeks  and 
months — the  greater  part  of  a  year — passed,  and 
only  served  to  'render  the  severance  chronic  and 
inveterate.  Pie  had  got  so  far  accustomed  to  it. 
As  for  Harry  Stubbs,  he  had  not  yet  found  himself 
one  of  its  victims.  It  happened  that  he  had  gone 
to  Wales  with  a  reading  party  during  the  last  long 
vacation,  and  had  spent  Christmas  with  an  ailing 
friend.  He  had  not  been  at  home  for  more  than  a 
day  or  two  at  a  time  since  the  Cottons  came  to  the 
neighborhood.  After  all,  they  had  become  much 
more  of  a  permanent  institution  than  had  at  first 
been  thought  likely.  Mr.  Cotton  at  least  took 
kindly  to  the  place  and  seldom  left  it. 


118  GIRL  NKIGUBORS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

COMMON    HUMANITY   HAS    A   VOICE   IN   THE    QUESTION. 

"  OH  !  MOTHER,  mother,  have  you  heard  ? "  cried 
Pie,  rushing  white  and  breathless  into  the  cottage 
parlor  where  Mrs.  Stubbs  was  unblushingly  darning 
such  a  basketful  of  stockings  as  Harriet  Cotton  had 
relegated  to  previous  generations. 

"  No,  child  ;  take  time  and  compose  yourself," 
said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  pausing  in  artistically  repairing 
the  heel  of  a  sock  in  which  one  of  Harry's  cricket- 
balls  was  inserted  to  enable  the  mender  to  do  her 
mending  more  deftly.  The  next  instant  she  put 
down  her  work  hastily,  interlaced  her  disengaged 
fingers,  and  said  with  a  gasp  after  the  composure 
which  she  had  recommended  to  her  daughter, 
"  You  don't  mean  to  tell  me  anything  ails  Hader- 
ezer — your  father?  I  saw  him  reading  his  news- 
paper not  five  minutes  ago.  You  have  not  heard 
any  bad  news  of  Harry?  No  post  has  come  in 
since  the  morning." 

"  Not  my  father  or  Harry,  oh,  no,  not  either  of 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  119 

them!"  panted  Pie.  "It  is  Miss  Cotton.  Lydia 
saw  her  thrown  from  her  horse,  and  carried  insen- 
sible back  to  the  manor  house." 

"  And  where  was  Lydia  ? "  inquired  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
restored  to  calmness,  and  recovering  her  judicial 
tone,  but  she  did  not  resume  her  stocking  darning. 
Indeed,  her  hand  was  shaking  so  much  that  not 
only  would  a  needle  between  the  trembling  fingers 
have  been  an  unsafe  instrument,  they  were  better 
kept  out  of  sight.  "  How  did  she  know  that  the 
young  lady  was  insensible  ? " 

"  Lydia  was  coming  from  the  village,  where  she 
had  gone  with  the  soup  for  Granny  Jones.  She 
says  Miss  Cotton's  horse  ran  away  opposite  the 
Cuckoo  Gate,  and  that  she  fell  into  the  road  and 
never  stirred  when  she  was  taken  up.  Lydia  ran 
across  when  she  saw  her  lying  in  a  heap,  but  there 
was  nothing  else  to  be  done,  for  Mr.  Cotton  and  a 
groom  were  with  Miss  Cotton.  One  of  the  garden- 
ers was  in  the  lane  too,  and  he  called  two  other 
men,  and  they  caught  Miss  Cotton's  horse  and 
helped  Mr.  Cotton  to  carry  her  to  the  house,  while 
the  groom  galloped  off  for  Dr.  Sanders." 

"Lydia's  geese  are  all  swans,"  remarked  Mrs. 
Stubbs  ;  as  if  the  comparative  badness  of  an  accident 
corresponded  with  the  difference  of  ornithological 


120  O1EL  NEIGHBORS. 

rank  between  a  goose  and  a  swan.  "  I  daresay  she 
has  exaggerated  everything,  and  there  is  not  much 
the  matter.  Miss  Cotton  is  a  bad  rider,  very  likely, 
and  has  let  her  horse  down,  and  there  is  the  head 
and  tail  of  the  story." 

"  No,  mother.  Miss  Cotton  has  a  good  seat  on 
horseback.  I  have  heard  people  who  were  judges 
say  so,  and  I  have  seen  it  myself,"  said  Pie,  scorning 
to  slander  a  fallen  foe.  "  Besides,  there  has  been  an 
accident,  there  could  be  no  mistake  in  that,"  she 
remonstrated  ;  "  and  if  the  accident  is  serious — if 
she  is  dead — it  will  be  so  terrible,"  she  ended, 
in  a  low  voice  quivering  with  awe  and  horror. 

"  Terrible  for  Mr.  Cotton  ;  but  let  us  hope  it  is  not 
so,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  more  gravely. 

"  And  for  us,"  cried  Pie  excitedly,  "  not  to  have 
known  her — hardly  ever  to  have  spoken  to  her, 
while  we  have  seen  her  continually  nearly  every  day 
for  a  number  of  months." 

"  I  don't  see  what  our  speaking  or  not  speaking  to 
her  has  to  do  with  it,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  a  little 
coldly.  "Neither  our  speaking  nor  our  being  silent 
would  have  kept  her  from  not  looking  where  she  was 
going,  or  from  dropping  her  reins,  or  r  iding  some 
untrustworthy  brute  of  a  horse." 

"  I  meant,  if  we  had  known  her  we  might  have 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  121 

gone  over  and  done  something  for  her,"  said  Pie, 
piteously. 

"  Most  likely  we  should  not  have  been  wanted." 

"  Oh,  mother,  she  has  only  her  father  and  the  serv- 
ants with  her,  and  she  may  be  dying !  "  cried  Pie, 
wringing  her  hands  and  growing  very  pale  herself  as 
she  sat  down  hastily. 

"  Pie,  you  are  as  bad  as  Lydia,"  cried  her  mother 
in  exasperation,  starting  up,  bringing  a  glass  of 
water  from  a  side  table,  and  making  Pie  swallow  it 
instantly.  "What  should  she  die  for?  Do  you 
think  every  girl  who  gets  a  fall  from  her  horse 
must  die,  and  that  you  are  justifiable  in  fainting  in 
anticipation  of  the  catastrophe  ?  I  thought  any 
daughter  of  mine  would  have  had  more  sense,  with 
a  greater  horror  of  making  a  fool  of  herself  and 
giving  other  people  trouble." 

In  response  to  this  bracing  treatment  Pie  sat  up 
in  her  chair,  and  the  red  came  into  her  cheeks 
again.  But  the  first  use  she  made  of  her  rallied 
forces  was  to  beg  and  entreat  her  mother  :  "  Don't 
mind  me.  It  was  very  silly  of  me  to  feel  a  little 
faint.  I  am  quite  ashamed  of  it.  But,  oh  !  mother, 
you  will  go  over  and  see  what  can  be  done.  If  you 
do  not  I  shall  feel  as  if  we  never  can  forgive  our- 
selves— and  she  was  so  nice  when  she  spoke  to  me 
after  the  Penny  Reading ! '' 


122  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Nonsense,  Pie  ! "  said  her  mother  sharply :  but 
she  rose  and  began  to  put  aside  her  work.  "  If  I 
go  it  will  be  an  exceedingly  disagreeable  step  for 
me  to  take — not  that  I  should  mind  the  disagreeable- 
ness  if  I  saw  it  to  be  my  duty.  It  is  not  likely  there 
is  much  wrong  with  the  girl ;  but  I  do  not  care  to 
think  of  her  father's  being  left  alone  with  her  and 
a  parcel  of  stuck-up  servants,  good  for  nothing,  I 
have  no  doubt — though  cook  had  struck  up  a  friend- 
ship with  that  demure  old  housekeeper,  and  will 
stand  up  for  her.  I  daresay  I  shall  get  no  thanks 
for  my  pains." 

"  Never  mind  thanks,"  said  Pie,  "  you  have  so 
much  experience !  You  are  such  a  capital  nurse, 
you  may  be  the  means  of  saving  her  life." 

"Pie  you  are  getting  light-headed.  Who  said  I 
wanted  thanks,  and  why  do  you  assail  me  with  flat- 
tery ?  I  should  like  to  hear  what  your  father  says 
first.  Stay,  there  is  Dr.  Sanders  galloping  up  with 
the  groom.  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  the  doctor; 
but  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  if  any  poor  child  in 
the  village  had  been  driven  over  or  fallen  into  one 
of  the  open  draw-wells  which  the  people  will  not 
close,  he  would  not  have  been  found  so  easily,  or 
brought  over  with  such  speed.  I  shall  take  the  lib- 
erty of  sending  out  to  stop  him  when  he  is  finished 


OIRL  NEIGHBORS.  123 

with  his  patient,  and  find  what  a  story  Lydia  has 
made  out  of  nothing,  and  what  an  officious  fool  I 
might  have  been  considered  if  I  had  followed  your 
advice,  Pie." 

The  doctor  was  not  long  in  the  manor  house, 
though  Pie,  who  could  not  rest,  believed  he  had 
been  hours.  It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  when 
she  kept  telling  herself  that  if  her  mother  were 
too  late  she  (Pie)  would  be  tempted  to  think  that 
Harriet  Cotton's  death  would  lie  at  their  door. 
Death  come  in  a  moment  to  a  girl  like  Pie's  self, 
whom  she  had  so  often  looked  at  and  blamed  or 
ridiculed,  but  with  whom  she  had  never  spoken  a 
friendly  word,  save  during  the  brief  interlude  of 
the  Penny  Reading,  for  all  these  months,  to  whom 
she  might  never  have  another  opportunity  to 
be  kind !  The  bare  idea  chilled  Pie  inexpress- 
ibly. 

When  Dr.  Sanders  did  reappear,  and  was 
cleverly  intercepted  and  conducted  to  the  cottage, 
his  report  was  such  that  Mrs.  Stubbs  took  up  her 
work  again  with  an  easy  if  a  somewhat  indig- 
nant: 

"  I  told  you  so,  Pie.  You  see  the  scrape  you 
might  have  led  me  into  by  rashly  leaping  at  con- 
clusions." 


124  GIRL  NEIGHB0113. 

So  far  from  Miss  Cotton's  being  dead  or  dying, 
it  was  supposed  at  first  that  she  was  very  little  hurt. 
She  had  been  stunned  for  a  few  minutes,  and  there 
was  a  contusion  on  the  back  which  a  few  days'  rest 
would  set  right.  The  doctor  had  been  able  to 
assure  Mr.  Cotton  that  there  was  no  real  reason 
why  he  should  not  go  to  town,  where  he  had  some- 
what urgent  business  on  the  following  day,  as  he 
had  previously  intended. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  felt  at  liberty  to  reflect :  "  I  dare- 
say that  girl  is  making  as  great  an  outcry  as  if 
she  had  been  half  killed,  and  is  worrying  her  poor 
foolish  father  nearly  out  of  his  senses."  "Whereas 
if  Mrs.  Stubbs  could  have  seen  across  the  brook 
and  its  bridges  into  Harriet  Cotton's  bedroom  the 
matron  would  have  found  the  girl,  not  merely 
bearing  considerable  pain  with  unusual  fortitude 
for  her  years,  but  concealing  what  she  was  suffer- 
ing, to  pacify  Mrs.  Walls,  whose  nerves  had  not 
recovered  from  the  shock  they  had  received,  and 
to  hinder  Harriet's  father  from  either  having  to 
endure  anxiety  on  her  account  or  to  give  up  going 
to  London  when  it  was  of  consequence  that  he 
should  go.  And  the  girl  who  was  thus  showing 
what  was  best  in  her  of  courage  and  self-forgetful- 
ness  was  telling  herself  during  the  long  sleepless 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  125 

hours  of  the  night — "If  Pie  Stubbs  yonder  had, 
not  to  say  a  back  opening  and  shutting  and  splitting 
itself  into  pieces  in  the  most  sickening  manner  like 
mine  to-night,  but  the  least  bit  of  toothache,  I 
believe  she  would  be  crying  like  a  baby  for  her 
mamma,  and  her  better-class  vixen  of  a  mother 
would  be  keeping  guard  over  her,  calling  her 
'pretty  dear,'  and  soothing  her  to  sleep.  I  don't 
wish  anybody  to  keep  guard  over  me  or  to  call  me 
*  pretty  dear  ! '  I  could  not  stand  it.  But  I  should 
like  if  I  could  go  to  sleep  and  forget  for  a  moment 
that  bolt  and  rush  of  '  Lady  Jane's,'  the  flash  of 
light  before  my  eyes,  and  the  thud  with  which  I  am 
sure  I  came  to  the  ground.  I  seem  to  feel  it  yet  in 
all  my  fingers  and  toes,  and  especially  in  my  poor 
back." 

Mr.  Cotton  went  up  to  town  quite  comfortably, 
and  returned  without  finding  that  Harriet's  re- 
covery had  come  to  a  stand-still  in  his  absence. 
He  repeated  the  experiment  several  times,  for  this 
was  a  busy  season  with  his  firm.  Then  he  felt 
himself  justified  in  arranging  to  stay  in  town  for  a 
whole  week,  to  save  himself  from  the  fatigue  of  so 
many  journeys  backward  and  forward.  His  house 
in  town  was  shut  up,  and  he  hated  a  club,  but  he 
would  easily  get  himself  put  up  somewhere.  He 


126  GIRL  NEI011BOR8. 

must  do  it,  for  he  had  felt  rather  out  of  sorts  lately. 
The  additional  strain  of  business  was  telling  upon 
him,  or  else  he  had  not  got  over — though  he  was 
not  such  a  twittering  goose  as  Walls — the  panic 
caused  by  poor  Harry's  little  accident.  She  said 
she  would  not  mind  in  the  least,  she  could  do  quite 
well  without  him  for  eight  days.  The  only  thing 
that  vexed  her  was  the  suspicion  of  fuss  and  his 
sending  for  his  daughter  Anne  with  her  baby,  that 
she  might  keep  her  sister  company  in  his  absence, 
while  the  child  would  serve  as  a  true  flesh-and- 
blood  doll  for  both  sisters.  It  did  not  look  to  him 
very  long  since  his  girls  were  playing  with  their 
wax  dolls. 

But  the  truth  was  that  Dr.  Sanders,  though  he 
hesitated  to  contradict  his  first  statement,  and  did 
not  like  to  disturb  Mr.  Cotton's  tranquillity  when 
there  might  not  be  sufficient  reason  for  the  disturb- 
ance, began  not  to  feel  so  satisfied  with  Miss  Cotton 
and  her  back  as  he  had  done  in  the  beginning.  He 
was  sanguine  by  nature,  but  he  had  to  acknowledge 
to  himself  that  backs  were  ticklish  places  to  get 
jarred  as  well  as  bruised.  He  had  to  recall  Rhoda 
Fielding's  fall  on  the  ice  at  Broomend,  which  had 
been  thought  nothing  of  at  the  time,  for  which  he 
had  sent  her  a  simple  embrocation — soap  liniment  or 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  127 

something  of  that  sort — and  told  her  she  would  be 
skating  as  briskly  as  ever  before  the  winter  was 
over.  Instead,  she  had  been  kept  on  a  couch  till  he 
had  hated  the  very  name  of  skating.  He  wished  to 
goodness  that  Miss  Cotton,  now  that  she  was  on  her 
feet  again,  would  not  walk  slightly  lame.  It  was 
ever  so  slightly,  so  that  perhaps  he  was  the  only 
person  who  detected  the  lameness  ;  still  he  did  de- 
tect it,  and  he  could  not  deny  it  to  himself  any  more 
than  he  could  refuse  to  see  that  she  had  looked  very 
wan  and  shaky  from  the  date  of  her  accident.  She 
had  a  pale  complexion  naturally,  and  the  rest  might 
be  fancy — very  likely  it  was  nothing — and  she 
would  bo  all  right  in  a  week  or  two,  as  he  had  said. 
But  though  Dr.  Sanders  did  not  desire  to  alarm 
anybody  when  the  alarm  might  be  uncalled  for,  he 
did  not  care  to  have  the  whole  responsibility  in  the 
case.  The  girl  was  as  good  as  a  rich  man's  only 
child,  for  it  was  understood  Mr.  Cotton  was  particu- 
larly fond  of  his  unmarried  daughter,  and  would  not 
send  her  from  home,  or  have  her  interfered  with  and 
thwarted,  by  placing  an  older  person  at  the  head  of 
his  household  in  the  meantime.  There  was  nothing 
whatever  to  apprehend  in  the  course  of  a  week  or  a 
month  for  that  matter.  Indeed,  there  was  no  abso- 
lute danger  to  life  to  be  feared  in  the  future,  though 


128  O2RL  NEIGHBORS. 

the  worst  were  to  come  to  the  worst — only  a  pro- 
tracted state  of  semi-invalidism,  sad  for  a  girl  and 
damaging  to  her  prospects  in.  life,  though  she  did 
happen  to  be  a  rich  man's  darling. 

Dr.  Sanders,  with  his  mind  considerably  exer- 
cised, suddenly  gave  way  so  far  as  to  confide  some 
of  his  fears  to  Mrs.  Stubbs.  She  was  an  old  friend, 
a  woman  of  experience  as  the  mother  of  a  family, 
and  a  safe  confidante  in  any  circumstances.  She 
was  rendered  still  safer  by  the  fact  that  the  Stubbses 
did  not  visit  the  Cottons,  so  that  Mrs.  Stubbs  could 
not  be  betrayed  into  the  indiscretion  of  dropping  a 
hint  of  danger  ahead  which  might  reach  Mr. 
Cotton's  ears. 

But  though  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  first  broached  the 
subject  to  Dr.  Sanders,  she  now  listened  stiffly.  No 
doubt  she  was  accustomed  to  be  consulted  both  by 
the  doctor  and  the  vicar  on  the  welfare  of  the 
parish,  and  found  no  fault  with  the  general  practice 
— on  the  contrary,  relished  her  share  of  it  without 
question.  But  though  she  had  sent  for  Dr.  Sanders 
just  after  he  had  been  called  in  to  Miss  Cotton  on 
her  accident,  to  ascertain  at  first  hand  how  the 
young  lady  was  faring,  yet  now  she  as  good  as  said 
that  she  did  not  approve  of  being  dragged  into  the 
Cottons'  family  concerns,  though  they  were  under 
her  very  nose. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  129 

"  I  should  suppose  the  effects  of  the  accident  will 
pass  off  in  time,  since  you  have  not  been  able  to 
trace  any  serious  injury,"  she  said  coolly.  "  I  dare- 
say she  is  making  a  great  ado  about  nothing,  but  I 
have  always  thought  that  a  goo<J  sign  where  health 
is  concerned.  It  is  a  pity  that  she  is  a  young  lady 
of  too  great  importance  for  you  to  tell  her  so,  as  you 
certainly  would  say  it  to  Mattie  Kidgeway  at  the 
Mills  or  Mrs.  Tom  Adams*  at  the  Adams'  farm." 

"  You're  quite  out  there,  ma'am,"  said  the  doctor, 
who  was  one  of  the  most  old-fashioned  institutions 
in  Maidsmeadows,  with  his  speech  old-fashioned,  in 
keeping  with  his  coat  and  his  riding-boots.  "I 
never  saw  so  young  a  woman  show  such  power  of 
self-control  as  Miss  Cotton  has  displayed.  I  have 
felt  driven  to  compliment  her  more  than  once, 
though  I  am  not  given  to  paying  compliments  to 
my  patients." 

"  Indeed !  "  was  all  Mrs.  Stubbs  allowed  herself 
to  say  in  reply,  though  she  was  reflecting  severely 
on  the  subserviency  of  most  men  to  a  well-filled 
purse.  Dr.  Sanders  had  only  vague  doubts  of  the 
state  of  Miss  Cotton's  spine  ;  but  though  he  hated  to 
raise  a  commotion,  he  could  not  keep  them  any 
longer  to  himself,  when  some  special  authority 
might  be  called  in,  without  loss  of  time,  to  dissipate 


130  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

or  confirm  them,  and  in  the  latter  case  exercise  his 
skill  in  suggesting  immediately  the  course  to  be 
pursued.  The  doctor  spoke  very  cautiously  to  Mr. 
Cotton,  and  in  the  next  minute  had  to  combat  a 
complete  cluster  of  distressed  proposals.  Mr.  Cot- 
ton would  not  go  to  London  for  a  day,  far  less  for 
a  week.  Some  one  else  would  do  his  business  for 
him  ;  poor  darling  Harry's  health  and  comfort  were 
the  first  things  to  be  considered.  He  would  take 
Harry  up  to  town  with  him,  and  put  her  under  any 
number  of  great  London  doctors  that  Dr.  Sanders 
might  recommend.  Unfortunately  the  Cottons'  old 
family  doctor  had  died  lately,  but  Mr.  Cotton  was 
good  enough  to  say  that  he  had  implicit  confidence 
in  whomever  Dr.  Sanders  might  recommend.  He 
would  summon  all  his  three  married  daughters  in- 
stead of  only  Anne,  who  was  the  youngest  of  the 
three,  and  had  her  first  baby  to  engross  her.  The 
others  were  well,  and  so  were  their  husbands  and 
children.  They  could  have  no  greater  obligation 
than  to  nurse  their  sick  sister.  They  had  been  good 
girls  as  girls  went,  and  surely  one  or  other  of  them 
must  have  developed  enough  sense  and  capacity  in 
her  married  state,  to  take  care  of  Harry  and  cheer 
her  up,  till  she  was  fit  to  go  about  again.  Good 
heavens !  was  there  any  chance  of  her  not  going 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  131 

about  any  more,  or  being  a  cripple  for  the  best 
part  of  her  life  !  He  should  never  get  over  having 
let  her  ride  that  brute.  It  Avas  a  favorite  of  hers, 
but  it  had  shied  and  run  off  once  before. 

It  was  with  some  difficulty  that  Dr.  Sanders 
calmed  down  Mr.  Cotton,  and  caused  him  to  see 
that  it  would  do  no  good,  but  a  great  deal  of  harm 
to  frighten  and  worry  Miss  Cotton.  She  would  be 
frightened  and  worried  if  he  did  not  go  up  to  town 
as  he  had  proposed.  She  could  not  go  with  him  at 
present,  it  would  be  next  to  impossible,  and  would 
involve  positive  danger  at  this  stage  of  her  recovery. 
One  of  her  sisters  was  quite  enough  to  be  with  the 
invalid,  as  had  been  already  arranged.  To  assemble 
the  whole  family  would  be  certain  to  startle  and 
agitate  her.  Nothing  was  worse  for  any  one  in  her 
condition  than  to  be  startled  and  kept  in  a  fever  of 
agitation.  On  the  whole,  it  would  be  better  to 
have  the  medical  consultation  after  Mr.  Cotton's  re- 
turn. He  could  bring  down  a  doctor  whom  Dr. 
Sanders  named,  if  it  suited  them  both. 

Mr.  Cotton  left  reluctantly  to  make  out  his  week 
in  town,  and  within  three  days  of  his  arrival  at  the 
house  of  his  daughter  Laura  in  Kensington,  where 
he  had  decided  to  stay,  a  fresh  disaster  oc- 
curred. 


132  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

It  was  Mrs.  Walls,  the  housekeeper,  who  brought 
the  intelligence  of  the  new  trouble.  She  found 
her  way  across  one  of  the  bridges  and  dropped 
in  at  the  cottage  to  relieve  her  burdened  mind 
by  telling  her  grievous  story  to  her  crony  the 
Stubbs'  old  cook,  and  bespeaking  her  good  offices 
if  anything  could  be  done  to  avert  still  heavier 
misfortunes. 

The  extremity  was  so  grave  that  no  ceremony 
could  be  used.  Cook  solemnly  marched  into  the 
cottage  parlor  and  addressed  her  mistress  at  the 
tea  table.  "  Mum,  this  here  family  at  the  manor 
house  do  seem  marked  out  for  affliction,"  said  cook. 
"  Mr.  Cotton  have  gone  and  took  the  fever  up  in 
London,  where  he  is  lying  at  the  present  moment  in 
one  of  his  married  daughter's  houses.  He  cannot 
be  moved,  and  he  has  sent  word,  not  being  off  his 
head  yet,  that  Miss  Cotton  is  not  to  go  up  to  town  to 
him — not  on  no  account.  The  infection  would  be 
worse  for  her  since  she  is  out  of  health  at  anyratc, 
and  so  it  would  be  for  Mrs.  Parry,  whose  baby  is 
not  more  than  three  months  old  yet/  Mrs.  Vincent 
that  was  the  eldest  Miss  Cotton,  will  take  care  of 
her  father,  and  they  may  be  easy  about  him  here 
till  he  is  well  again. 

"  There  is  some  sense  in  that,"  pronounced  Mrs. 
Stubbs  slowly. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  133 

"  But,  laws  !  mum,  Miss  Cotton  ain't  easy.  She's 
neither  to  hold  nor  to  bind.  Mrs.  Walls  has  stepped 
over  unbeknown  to  the  ladies  to  see  if  you'll  step 
back  before  or  after  her,  and  try  if  you  can  pacify 
Miss  Harry — Miss  Cotton,  I  should  say." 

"  Me ! "  cried  Mrs.  Stubbs  in  such  stern  rebuke 
that  she  forgot  her  grammar.  "  Is  the  woman 
mad  ?  What  have  I  to  do  with  it  ?  I  am  sorry  for 
Mr.  Cotton's  illness,  of  course,  as  he  is  a  near  neigh- 
bor. But  I  am  not  afraid  of  the  family,  we  do  not 
even  visit  them,  as  you  and  this  Mrs.  Walls,  or 
whatever  her  name  may  be,  are  well  aware.  Miss 
Cotton  has  one  of  her  married  sisters  with  her ;  if 
she  cannot  advise  and  console  her  I  do  not  see  how 
anybody  else  can." 

"  If  you  please,  mum,  Mrs.  Parry  ain't  no  good, 
Mrs.  Walls  says.  She  was  always  that  soft,  and 
she  is  that  taken  up  with  her  baby — a  bit  delicate 
thing — she  can  think  of  nothing  else.  Miss  Harry, 
as  they  call  her — that  is  our  Miss  Cotton  here — says 
she  won't  be  kept  away  from  her  father  or  have 
anybody  else  to  nurse  him.  She  understands  his 
ways  best,  and  she  always  took  care  of  him  when  he 
had  his  fits  of  gout.  She  won't  be  made  an  invalid  of; 
there's  nothing  to  speak  of  the  matter  with  her. 
Shell  start  for  London  the  first  thing  to-morrow 


134  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

morning.  That  is  how  she  goes  on,  with  her  face 
as  white  as  a  sheet,  and  she  can't  bear  her  poor  back 
without  a-holding  of  it,  and  she  is  limping  as  if  it 
was  her  leg  and  not  her  back  that  were  broke." 

"  She  must  be  stopped,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs 
promptly. 

"  So  we,  Mrs.  "Walls  and  me,  think,  mum ;  and  if 
a  lady  old  enough  to  be  her  mother,  as  she  must 
look  up  to,  were  to  interfere  and  tell  her  what  her 
dooty  is,  she  might  mind.  Mrs.  Walls  says  Miss 
Harry  don't  mind  her  sister,  not  the  least  bit,  and 
she  won't  listen  to  Mrs.  "Walls.  Neither  of  them 
will  be  able  to  keep  Miss  Harry  from  having  her 
way.  Mrs.  Walls  is  fit  to  lose  her  own  wits,  for  she 
says  her  poor  young  lady  will  not  only  be  the  death 
of  herself,  as  Mrs.  Walls  has  known  and  done  for 
from  a  child,  but  of  the  poor  gentleman  as  consider- 
ate and  bin  offensive  a  gentleman,  when  he  were 
alive  and  at  home,  as  could  be  found  any- 
wheres." 

"  He's  not  dead  yet.  And  this  comes  of  a  girl 
getting  all  her  own  way,"  cried  Mrs.  Stubbs  impa- 
tiently. "  Why  does  not  Dr.  Sanders  interfere  ? 
she  is  his  patient." 

"  Because  he  is  gone  down  to  Southampton  this 
morning  to  see  an  old  patient  there,  and  he  is  not 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  135 

expected  back  before  the  middle  of  the  day  to- 
morrow. Mrs.  Walls  have  been  at  the  sur- 
gery." 

By  good  luck  Pie  chanced  to  be  out,  so  that  she 
could  not  be  blamed  on  this  occasion  for  influencing 
her  mother  in  the  course  she  took.  For  Mrs.  Stubbs 
could  not  answer  to  herself,  either  in  the  capacity  of 
a  mother  or  of  a  woman  who  had  come  to  the  years 
of  discretion,  for  refusing  any  longer  to  pay  her  first 
visit  to  the  manor  house  in  order  to  express  her 
sympathy  and  remonstrate,  as  the  active  minded, 
warm-hearted,  warm-tempered  woman  was  prone 
both  to  sympathize  and  remonstrate  with  her  neigh- 
bors, great  and  small,  when  there  was  any  prospect 
of  hindering  harm  or  doing  good.  It  was  awkward 
in  the  circumstances,  but,  perhaps  it  would  not  have 
been  less  but  more  awkward  had  she  been  an  ordi- 
nary acquaintance  of  the  Cottons.  Only  an  intimate 
friendship — and  the  family  had  not  been  long 
enough  in  the  neighborhood  to  make  intimate 
friends — or  mere  humanity  could  warrant  her 
appearance  on  the  scene. 

As  a  humane  woman,  a  Christian  woman,  Mrs. 
Stubbs  had  no  choice.  She  must  stir  up  this  weak 
Mrs.  Parry,  she  must  master  this  willful  Miss  Cotton 
in  her  rebellion,  in  whatever  light  they  chose  to 
regard  her — Mrs.  Stubbs' — intrusion. 


136  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  did  not  require  to  make  a  toilet  on 
this  spring  afternoon — a  light  shawl  would  be 
enough  to  protect  her  head  and  cap,  as  it  was 
enough  when  she  walked  about  the  cottage  grounds. 
This  was  not  a  ceremonious  call  she  was  about  to 
make,  but  an  act  of  charity  she  had  to  perform.  In 
fact  so  unceremonious  an  invasion  of  the  [manor 
house  had  not  been  attempted  by  the  inmates  of  the 
cottage  since  old  Squire  Fuller  made  his  loving 
elaborate  preparations  to  welcome  his  family,  at  all 
points,  and  at  all  hours. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  only  stopped  to  tell  Mr.  Stubbs  what 
she  was  going  to  do,  and  Haderezer  Stubbs  laid 
down  the  stone  he  was  examining,  with  a  lively 
exclamation. 

"  Eh  !  what !  Poor  Cotton  dowrn  with  fever !  A 
bad  look-out  for  a  man  of  his  build  at  his  age. 
Still,  he  seemed  hale  and  energetic,  always  stump- 
ing about  that  fancy  farm  of  his  when  he  was  not 
going  up  to  town  to  see  after  his  business.  He  had 
the  air,  not  only  of  living  on  the  fat  of  the  land 
without  a  worldly  care,  but  of  being  a  temperate 
man  amid  all  the  so-called  delicacies  of  the  season 
— so  much  the  better  for  him  nowr." 

When  Mrs.  Stubbs  went  on  to  tell  her  errand 
he  made  a  kind  of  little  bow,  half  in  cordial  ap- 


OIRL  NEIGHBORS.  137 

proval,  half  in  jesting  mockery.  "  Well  done,  Mrs. 
Stubbs ! "  he  said.  "  Upon  my  word  you  intrepid 
ladies  are  arrested  by  nothing  when  it  is  a  question 
of  consistency  or  inconsistency,  exactly  where  we 
timid  men  would  stand  bungling  and  hesitating. 
Just  what  I  should  have  expected  of  you,  Sapientia, 
my  dear.  But  I  say,  don't  come  down  hard  upon 
the  poor  girls,  who  must  have  sore  hearts  any- 
how." 

"They  must  be  a  couple  of  fools  in  different 
styles,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  without  mincing  matters, 
and  without  separating  the  innocent  from  the 
guilty.  "They  cannot  be  let  throw  away  their 
own  lives  and  endanger  their  father's  by  their  care- 
lessness and  disobedience,  while  there  are  older 
people  at  hand  to  speak  their  minds  and  show  the 
pair  the  mischief  they  may  do  by  their  sentimental 
folly. 


138  GIRL 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   RESULT   OF   MRS.  STUBBS'    VISIT. 

MRS.  STUBBS  returned,  to  find  Pie,  who  had  come 
in  and  been  apprised  of  her  mother's  absence  and 
its  cause,  eager  to  learn  the  sequel.  Even  Mr. 
Stubbs,  who  was  wont  to  be  sarcastic  on  the  attrac- 
tions of  gossip  to  women,  was  not  unwilling  to 
listen  to  the  details  of  the  interview. 

"  I  have  done  it,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  with  a  little 
allowable  satisfaction,  as  she  walked  in  from  the 
veranda,  laid  aside  her  shawl,  felt  that  her  cap 
was  all  right,  and  sat  down  again  in  her  chair. 
She  did  not  seem  to  consider  any  farther  communi- 
cation necessary. 

"Is  Cotton  very  ill?"  inquired  Mr.  Stubbs. 

"  Is  Harriet  Cotton  in  a  dreadful  state  of  mind  ? 
Does  she  look  as  broken  down  by  her  accident  as 
people  say  ? "  asked  Pie  breathlessly. 

"  If  you  please,  mum,"  burst  in  cook  from  the 
open  door,  to  which  she  had  hurried  to  discover 
"  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  things,"  with  the  stol- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS,  139 

idity  and  absence  of  tact  not  uncommon  in  her 
station,  at  her  years,  "  I  forgot  to  say  so  before, 
but  I  hope  you  did  not  let  on  that  me,  or  Mrs. 
"Walls  either,  had  anything  to  do  with  your  calling. 
We  meant  well,  and  to  do  as  we'd  be  done  by ; 
but  gentlefolks,  more  especially  when  they're  rich 
young  ladies,  are  given  to  be  onreasonable.  It 
may  be  thought  as  how  we've  forgotten  our- 
selves." 

"Hold  your  tongue,  cook!"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
peremptorily.  "  Of  course  I  told  what  had  brought 
me,  and  how  I  had  heard  that  there  was  good  rea- 
son why  I  should  intrude  my  advice.  If  you  are 
very  anxious  I  can  go  back  again  and  beg  the 
young  ladies  not  to  bear  malice  against  you  and 
Mrs.  Walls.  But  if  I  were  you  I  should  not  require 
the  service.  To  tell  the  truth — however  interesting 
the  subject,  I  do  not  think  that  Mr.  Cotton's  daugh- 
ters have  a  thought  to  share  for  the  probable  com- 
plicity of  you  and  Mrs.  Walls  in  this  matter." 

Cook  retreated,  snubbed,  reflecting  that  her 
missus  had  a  heart  in  its  right  place,  and  could  be 
trusted  through  thick  and  thin  where  it  was  in 
question  ;  but  she  could  be  "  that  sharp  "  when  she 
was  provoked. 

"  You  have  not  said  how  Cotton  is  going  OR  ? " 
Mr.  Stubbs  reminded  his  wife. 


140  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"Or  how  you  found  Miss  Cotton?"  chimed  in 
Pie. 

"  He  is  going  on  as  well  as  can  be  looked  for — the 
man  is  only  in  the  first  stage  of  the  fever.  By-the- 
by,  Haderezer,  I  promised  that  you  would  go  up  to 
town  to-morrow  and  call  at  the  Cotton's  counting- 
house.  Strange  to  say,  that  girl  recollected  there 
might  be  some  infection  in  the  fever,  for  you  as 
well  as  for  herself,  and  suggested  that  you  ought  to 
go  to  the  counting-house  and  not  to  the  house  where 
her  father  is  lying  ill.  At  the  same  time  I  daresay 
the  precaution  is  needless.  In  all  probability  the 
fever  is  typhoid,  and  the  mention  of  infection  is 
merely  a  ruse  to  keep  her  away." 

"  But  why  on  earth  should  I  go  to  town  and  call 
at  Cotton's  counting-house  ? "  demanded  Mr.  Stubbs 
restively  and  ruefully.  "  Is  not  Cotton  lying  ill  at 
his  daughter's  house  ?  Both  she  and  her  husband 
are  on  the  spot,  they  can  write  by  every  post,  or, 
as  they  are  rich  people,  send  special  messengers  if 
they  prefer  it.  What  reason  is  there  for  dragging 
me  out  of  my  den  and  bothering  me  about  their 
father?  I  cannot  imagine  what  you  were  thinking 
of,  Sapientia,  to  give  such  an  absurd  promise/' 

"Haderezer,"  said  his  wife  more  in  Idly  than  sne 
was  in  the  habit  of  speaking,  because  she  was  a  just 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  141 

woman  and  she  acknowledged  that  there  was  some 
justice  in  his  remonstrance,  "  nothing  else  would 
content  the  girl  and  put  her  past  her  determi- 
nation to  go  to  her  father  in  spite  of  his  prohibition. 
She  said  the  prohibition  was  all  for  her  sake,  and  he 
would  not  be  angry  with  her  for  disregarding  it. 
That  comes  of  allowing  young  people  to  tamper 
with  the  letter  of  the  law  under  the  false  impression 
that  the  spirit  is  safe.  A  cat  could  see  that  Miss 
Cotton  is  totally  unable  to  travel.  As  to  nursing 
her  father,  poor  man,  he  would  be  off  his  head 
indeed  if  he  permitted  it.  I  cannot  think  how  Dr. 
Sanders  failed  to  discover  that  the  girl  must  have 
got  badly  hurt  by  the  fall  from  her  horse.  It  is 
enough  to  make  one  doubt  his  skill  in  future." 

"  What  is  her  sister  about,  not  to  prevent  her  tak- 
ing any  rash  step  ?  "  grumbled  the  victim. 

"  Oh  !  her  sister  is  one  of  those  pretty  babies  that 
you  men  are  so  fond  of  marrying,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
disdainfully ;  "  but  even  she,  when  Miss  Harriet 
Cotton  spoke  of  starting  to-morrow  for  London, 
burst  out  crying,  and  implored  me  to  stop  her,  for 
she  (Mrs.  Parry)  could  not.  It  was  with  the  great- 
est difficulty  that  I  induced  the  girl  to  consent  at 
last  to  delay  the  execution  of  her  intention.  She 
has  got  it  into  her  head  that  her  sister  and  brother- 


142  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

in-law  in  town,  and  her  father,  if  he  knows  what  he 
is  doing, will  smooth  down  matters  and  seek  to  deceive 
her.  She  says  the  people  at  the  counting-house  will 
be  certain  to  know  the  truth,  and  though  they 
would  not  write  it  to  her,  if  you  were  to  go  there, 
simply  as  a  friend  of  the  family,  they  would  not 
keep  it  from  you.  There  is  some  sense  in  what  she 
says,  and  for  myself  I  hold  that  the  truth  is  the  truth 
and  should  always  be  told." 

"  And,  pray,  who  will  go  in  for  telling  her  the 
truth,  if  the  news  should  be  bad  ?  I  suppose  I  am 
expected  to  do  that  also  !  "  protested  Mr.  Stubbs  in 
the  tone  of  a  deeply  injured  man.  "  I  give  you 
warning  beforehand  that  you  may,  but  I  sha'n't. 
An  excitable,  passionate  girl  in  a  bad  state  of  health, 
good  heavens  !  it  may  kill  her  on  the  spot.  Surely 
her  nearest  relations,  including  her  father,  are  the 
best  judges  of  what  she  ought  to  be  told." 

But  he  said  no  more  of  the  grievance  to  himself— 
an  elderly  man  and  a  delicate  man,  with  engage- 
ments of  some  importance  to  him  personally,  and 
to  the  public  too,  he  was  fain  to  think,  though  he 
had  long  ago  resigned  his  post  office  duties,  to  have 
to  turn  out  of  his  retirement  and  encounter  the 
nuisance  of  a  journey  to  town  and  back  again,  in 
order  to  be  a  peevish,  undisciplined  girl's  mes- 
senger. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  143 

"  It  will  be  time  enough  to  settle  who  is  to  tell 
the  bad  news  when  you  bring  them,"  said  his  wife 
calmly,  assured  that  she  had  gained  her  point ; 
"  and,  Fie,"  she  turned  round  to  her  daughter,  "  I 
said  to  Miss  Harriet  Cotton  you  would  go  over  be- 
fore dinner  and  sit  with  her  for  half  an  hour,  as  Mrs. 
Parry  is  so  much  taken  up  with  her  baby — a  little 
mite  that  sleeps  badly.  Miss  Cotton  did  not  seem 
to  care  much  for  your  company,  though  she  was  not 
so  rude  as  to  tell  me  so  in  plain  words.  I  told  her 
that  any  company  was  better  than  none  in  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  that  you  would  keep  her  from  mop- 
ing and  be  at  her  service  of  an  afternoon  till  her 
father  was  better." 

"  But  mother,  if  she  does  not  want  me  !  "  cried  Pie 
aghast,  yet  still  with  a  thrill  of  expectation  at  the 
prospect. 

"  It  is  not  what  she  wants,  or  what  you  want 
either,  though  I  had  a  notion  that  you  were  dying 
to  make  her  acquaintance  all  this  time,"  said  Mrs. 
Stubbs,  dryly,  "  it  is  what  is  good  for  her.  She  is 
fretting  herself  into  a  fever  of  her  own  about  her 
father,  and  about  being  kept  away  from  him  in  his 
illness.  Any  diversion  will  help  her,  even  if  it  be 
only  the  chance  of  snapping  at  you  for  disturbing 
her  ;  at  the  same  time  she  is  well  enough  bred,  she 


144  61RL  NEIGHBORS. 

will  not  take  an  actual  bite  of  you.  She  will  not  refuse 
to  receive  you,  and  she  will  be  outwardly  civil. 
After  all,  being  a  girl,  though  her  manners  are 
ridiculously  formed  for  her  years,  I  daresay  she 
will  not  really  object  to  another  girl — it  will  be  two 
silly  heads  to  put  together  and  keep  each  other  in 
countenance.  As  I  said  to  her,  any  company  is  bet- 
ter than  none  sometimes,"  ended  Mrs.  Stubbs,  with 
quite  cheerful  philosophy. 

Pie  looked  very  blank  at  the  qualified  version 
of  the  benefit  she  was  to  confer.  Her  father  -had 
left  the  room,  so  that  she  could  not  appeal  to  him, 
but  she  must  make  more  attempts  to  move  her 
mother.  "  After  having  stood  out  and  not  gone 
near  them  for  so  long  a  time  to  descend  upon  them 
in  an  avalanche  like  this  !  "  said  Pie,  with  a  sudden 
assumption  of  dignity. 

"  Say  no  more,"  exclaimed  her  mother  shortly. 
"  I  can  easily  write  a  note  that  my  daughter  objects 
to  go,  and  there's  an  end  of  it.  You  are  not  a  clergy- 
man, Pie ;  you  are  not  even  a  clergyman's  wife, 
sister  or  daughter.  You  do  not  belong  as  a  matter 
of  right  to  people  in  distress,  only  I  made  the  great 
mistake  of  supposing  that  you  wished  to  help  your 
neighbors." 

"  So  I  do,"   said  Pie,  reproachfully,    "  and  you 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  145 

know  I  do  not  mean  to  raise  any  serious  obstacle. 
I  am  very  sorry  indeed  for  Harriet  Cotton,  but  it 
will  be  very  difficult  and  hard  for  me,  1  shall  not 
know  what  to  say  or  do." 

"  If  you  are  under  the  impression  that  you  can 
ever  be  of  much  use  to  your  neighbor  without  at 
least  a  considerable  amount  of  difficulty  and  hard- 
ship to  yourself,  you  have  labored  under  a  complete 
delusion,  my  dear.  I  have  yet  to  discover  that  the 
old  divine  was  wrong  when  he  said  neither  saints 
nor  sinners  could  ever  get  to  heaven  on  feather-beds. 
As  for  not  knowing  what  to  say,  I  think  that  is  a 
little  idiotic,  Pie,  when  you  are  both  girls  near  in 
age,  in  rank,  and  in  many  of  your  surroundings,  and 
not  very  far  apart  in  education." 

Pie  looked  incredulous.  "  If  she  were  like  other 
girls  it  might  have  been  easier,"  she  said,  and 
stopped. 

"  As  far  as  my  experience  goes,"  replied  Mrs. 
Stubbs,  "  girls  are  not  an  order  of  beings  that  offers 
infinite  variety." 

Pie  began  again  on  a  new  tack.  "  Was  every- 
thing very  grand,  mother  ?  You  have  not  given  me 
a  very  clear  idea  of  what  you  thought  of  Mrs.  Parry 
and  Miss  Cotton,  how  }rou  met,  and  all  that  passed." 

"  You  will  see  and  judge  for  yourself." 


146  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Either  Mrs.  Stubbs  did  not  wish  to  bias  her  daugh- 
ter's opinion  more  than  she  had  already  done,  or 
she  declined  to  admit  anything  that  would  break 
the  force  of  her  concession. 

An  hour  later  Pie  set  out  alone  with  the  last  new 
book  and  a  bunch  of  fresh  primroses  for  Harriet 
Cotton,  though  it  was  on  the  cards  that  she  might 
refuse  to  read  the  one,  and  in  the  light  of  the  spring 
glories  of  her  father's  greenhouses,  be  utterly  indif- 
ferent to  the  other.  Pie's  heart  beat  fast  as  for  the 
first  time  for  a  number  of  months  she  crossed  the 
brook  and  advanced  toward  the  manor  house,  at  the 
point  where  the  veranda  merged  into  a  heavy 
portico.  It  was  too  early  in  the  year  for  the  "  blue 
lilies  "  to  be  set  out,  though  the  air  was  not  hostile 
to  primroses.  The  great  tubs  stood  there  and  were 
filled  with  hardy  shrubs,  laurustinus,  dwarf  rhodo- 
dendron, and  azalea — the  last  bursting  into  bloom  as 
Pie  had  seen  them  from  her  own  side  of  the  bound- 
ary. There  were  also  some  junipers  and  yews 
pressed  into  the  service,  which  struck  her  for  the 
first  time,  with  a  little  recoil,  as  containing  reminis- 
cences of  churchyards.  She  would  not  have  had 
such  a  thought  yesterday — but  to-day,  with  poor 
Mr.  Cotton  lying  sick  up  in  London,  the  association 
would  arise,  and  she  could  only  hope  that  it  did  not 
occur  to  his  daughters. 


QIRL  NEIGHBORS,  147 

No,  Pie  had  never  seen  anything  so  perfect  as  the 
manor  house  hall  under  its  present  aspect,  and  she 
could  say  the  same  of  the  untenanted  drawing- 
room  into  which  she  was  ushered.  She  did  not 
imagine  that  she  was  peculiarly  impressionable 
where  upholstery  was  concerned,  but  the  last  craze 
for  subdued  depths  of  richness  and  artistic  harmo- 
nies is  subtle  and  wide-spread  in  its  influence.  It 
was  something  like  a  revelation  as  well  as  a  delight 
to  Pie  only  to  take  in  the  tints  of  the  ceiling,  the 
hues  of  the  tiles,  the  outlines  and  carving  of  the 
wood- work.  Walls,  floors,  carpets,  curtains,  couches, 
and  chairs  in  their  soft,  deep  blending  of  color  in 
contrast  with  vivid  bits  of  brilliance,  their  dove- 
neck  gray,  peacock  blue,  and  green  of  unripe  oats, 
flashed  upon  by  "  high  lights "  of  poppy-red  and 
burning  gold ;  their  textures  velvety,  glossy,  semi- 
transparent,  as  the  conditions  required,  Avere  like 
the  creations  of  an  exquisite  dream,  or  the  visions 
of  fairyland,  or  the  glamor  produced  by  moonlight. 
Pie  had  not  more  of  poetic  insight  and  yearning  than 
may  be  found  in  many  girls  of  her  age,  yet  she  im- 
mediately felt  that  this  was  the  poetry  of  furniture. 
She  thought  of  Harry's  Nankin  jars,  and  longed  for 
him  to  see  the  manor  house  thus  transformed.  She 
wondered  if  her  mother  had  sustained  an  instan- 


148  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

taneous  conversion,  or  had  stiffened  herself  in  her 
allegiance  to  her  old  serviceable,  broad  daylight 
damask  and  Brussels  with  their  hard  jarring  blues 
and  greens,  reds  and  yellows,  and  their  simpering 
pinks.  Her  tables  and  chairs,  by  comparison,  were 
either  clumsily  uncouth  or  floridly  gimcrack.  For 
even  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  some  gimcrack  ideas  with 
regard  to  gilding,  plate-glass,  papier-mache,  and 
mock  Dresden  and  Sevres  china  vases,  with  their 
bad  shapes,  Brobdingnagian  lilies  and  roses,  and 
finical  blurred  landscapes.  Pie  herself  was  dis- 
tractingly  divided  between  an  old  family  affection 
and  a  sneaking  kindness  for  the  household  gods  of 
her  childhood — her  whole  life,  and  a  burning  desire 
to  turn  the  cottage  outside  in  and  refurnish  it  with 
those  charming  items  which  fascinated  her  taste  and 
soothed  her  senses. 

Then  she  looked  down  at  herself  where  she  sat. 
Pie  had  been  guilty  of  thinking  a  little  of  her  per- 
sonal apperance  before  she  started,  even  under  the 
sad  circumstances.  She  had  not  wished  to  offend 
the  eyes  of  Harriet  Cotton  and  her  sister.  But  Pie 
had  not  been  provided  with  the  time  or  the  means 
at  hand  to  do  much  toward  brightening  her  ordi- 
narily rather  sombre  apparel.  She  had  tied  a  little 
Indian  scarf,  which  was  a  favorite  with  her,  round 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  149 

her  throat,  and  the  act  had  given  her  a  little  the 
look  of  a  robin  redbreast  instead  of  a  linnet.  But 
though  an  Indian  scarf  of  the  old  Cashmere  dyes  is 
a  valuable  adjunct  to  a  toilet,  it  will  hardly  make 
up  for  a  host  of  deficiencies.  Pie's  serge  frock  and 
jacket  were  dingy,  not  to  say  shabby.  She  wore 
strong  boots,  which  Mrs.  Stubbs  called  "  sensible 
country  boots,"  with  which  Pinet  had  nothing  to 
do,  and  thick  calfskin  gloves,  for  the  weather  was 
still  cold,  though  there  were  primroses  in  the  hedge- 
rows. She  had  a  lively  mental  perception  of  her  felt 
hat  with  the  mouse-colored  velvet  showing  traces  of 
rain  drops  incurred  the  last  time  she  had  gone  to 
look  into  the  affairs  of  the  Boys'  Lending  Library, 
when  her  arms  had  been  encumbered  with  books 
so  that  she.  .had  not  been  able  to  carry  an  umbrella. 
Yes,  she  was  a  blot  on  the  beautiful  drawing- 
room,  but  she  forgot  all  about  the  momentary  vex- 
ation caused  by  the  thought,  when  Mrs.  Parry  and 
Harriet  Cotton  came  into  the  room  together,  and 
Harriet  introduced  her  sister.  Pie  did  not  even  no- 
tice how  the  sisters  were  dressed — Mrs.  Parry  in  a 
coral-colored  dressing-gown,  and  Harriet,  though  she 
and  not  her  sister  was  the  invalid,  in  one  of  her 
winter  morning-gowns,  light  and  warm  to  look  at  in 
its  shifting  olive  shades,  as  it  was  warm  to  wear  in  its 


150  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

soft  woolen  material — a  much  more  suitable  dress 
than  her  ivory-tinted  summer  frocks.  The  garments  of 
the  rich  man's  daughters  did  not  mar  the  palace  of 
decorative  art,  but  they  entirely  escaped  Pie's  atten- 
tion for  the  instant.  It  was  not  that  she  was  over- 
powered with  shyness  and  awkwardness.  In  spite 
of  her  previous  apprehensions  she  had  too  much 
sense  for  these  fears,  and  she  was,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs 
had  said  of  Harriet  Cotton,  reasonably  well-bred. 
Perhaps  she  was  the  better  bred  of  the-  two  girls,  if 
one  excepts  just  the  slightest  suspicion  of  rusticity 
belonging  to  a  life  spent  in  the  country,  and  a  shade 
of  juvenile  starchedness  born  of  the  fact  that  Pie 
was  a  meretorious  public  servant.  Because  of  the 
amount  of  her  public  service  and  the  limited  num- 
ber of  her  years,  she  was  unable  to  wear  her  virtues 
and  achievements  quite  as  lightly  and  humbly,  with 
as  pleasant  an  absence  of  self-consciousness — as 
gracefully,  in  short,  as,  doubtless,  she  would  wear 
them  when  she  was  half-a-dozen  years  older  and 
wiser.  But  it  was  not  because  of  her  self-control 
and  the  tiny  grains  of  consequential  ity  at  which 
Harry  had  laughed  so  boisterously,  that  Pie  would 
have  actually  failed,  had  she  undergone  an  exami- 
nation on  the  subject,  to  be  able  to  tell  what  Mrs. 
Parry  and  Harriet  Cotton  wore  on  Pie's  first  visit  to 
the  manor  house, 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  151 

For  the  Cottons  were  certainly  affectionate 
daughters  ;  they  had  been  greatly  alarmed  and  dis- 
tressed by  the  tidings  of  their  father's  serious  ill- 
ness, and  the  sisters'  faces  bore  tokens  of  their 
anxiety  and  sorrow.  In  addition,  Harriet  was 
looking  very  ill.  There  was  a  sallowness  in  her 
face  which  did  not  belong  to  her  naturally  pale 
complexion.  Her  dark  eyes  looked  twice  as  big 
and  twice  as  dark  because  of  the  purple  rings 
round  them.  She  was  walking  with  manifest 
lameness,  and  there  was  a  pinched  look  about  her 
cold  hands  and  a  blue  shade  in  her  finger-nails, 
and  Pie  could  see  nothing  save  the  traces  of  sorrow 
and  sickness. 


153  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

BROKEN    ICE. 

THERE  was  no  question  of  what  Pie  was  to  say 
when  she  did  meet  her  neighbors.  "  Oh,  Miss  Cot- 
ton, I  am  so  sorry !  I  hope  Mr.  C  otton  will  soon  be 
well  again,"  burst  incoherently  from  Pie  Stubbs' 
lips,  the  words  saying  themselves  without  any  effort 
on  her  part. 

"  It  is  very  good  of  you  to  say  so,  and  to  come 
over,"  said  Harriet  courteously  if  indifferently. 
"  Mrs.  Stubbs  said  you  would  come,  after  she  had 
done  all  she  could  to  comfort  us." 

It  was  gratitude  a  trifle  extorted,  betraying  an 
undercurrent  cf  weariness  and  just  a  grain  or  two 
of  exasperation.  "  After  you  had  all  stayed  away 
so  long,"  the  look  and  tone  seemed  to  say,  "  you 
need  not  have  come  and  pestered  us  now.  I  wish 
she  had  let  me  alone.  I  should  have  had  more 
peace  if  I  had  got  my  will,  though  it  had  hurt  my 
back." 

"  It  is  such  a  trial  for  us,"  Mrs.  Parry  said  plain- 


CURL  NE1G11BOR8.  153 

lively.  "  Baby  is  delicate,  and  Tom,  my  husband, 
is  away — I  mean  he  is  up  in  town — and  not  able  to 
tell  us  what  to  do,  or  think  here." 

It  was  plain  that  Baby  Parry  was  at  present  the 
pivot  round  which  Mrs.  Parry's  whole  being  revolved, 
and  that  she  could  do  nothing — whether  write  a 
note  to  bid  Dr.  Sanders  call  and  see  baby  to-mor- 
row and  find  out  what  was  fretting  him,  why  he 
could  not  sleep,  though  she  and  nurse  had  dandled 
and  danced  him  or  sung  to  him  the  whole  of  the 
last  night ,  or  eat  her  dinner  to  keep  up  her  strength; 
or  lie  down  on  the  sofa  to  make  up  for  her  sleep- 
less night — without  having  Tom  at  her  elbow  to 
advise  and  put  the  advice  into  execution,  to  pity 
and  pet  her. 

There  was  very  little  harm  in  pretty  daisy-faced 
Mrs.  Parry,  but  there  was  also  very  little  wisdom- 
even  a  girl  like  Pie  could  see  that.  The  notion  of 
Mrs.  Parry's  guiding  and  restraining  her  sister 
Harriet  was  simply  ridiculous  to  all  save  a  man.  It 
was  founded  on  the  popular  delusion  with  regard  to 
the  superior  strength  of  mind  of  the  matron — espe- 
cially the  English  matron — as  compared  to  the 
maiden.  Backed  by  Tom  and  unengrossed  by  baby, 
Mrs.  Parry  might  have  wielded  some  reflected 
power.  As  it  was,  she  was  the  most  bewildered, 
overburdened,  and  helpless  of  mortals. 


154  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

There  followed  naturally  between  the  three  a  little 
talk  of  Mr.  Cotton's  illness,  so  inopportune  away 
from  home,  in  which  Mrs.  Parry  expressed  an  opin- 
ion of  her  own.  In  spite  of  her  sincere  filial  attach- 
ment she  let  it  slip  out,  that  though  the  attack  of 
fever  might  be  inopportune  in  other  respects,  its 
happening  away  from  home  was  not  an  unmiti- 
gated evil  in  her  eyes.  "My  father  will  have  the 
best  doctors  in  the  kingdom  and  every  care  from 
Laura  where  he  is.  And  you  know,  Miss  Stubbs, 
Laura,  our  eldest  sister,  has  no  children,  so  that 
is  no  danger  of  the  dear  little  things  catching  the 
infection,  if  it  is  catching  for  children,  which  I  sup- 
pose it  may  be." 

Harriet  looked  indignant,  but  did  not  condescend 
to  argue  the  point,  aud  the  topic  was  changed  for 
that  of  babies,  on  which  the  conversation  was  likely 
to  continue  so  long  as  Mrs.  Parry  was  in  the  room. 

Happily  Pie  did  herself  credit  on  the  subject.  She 
had  the  wholesome  liking  for  babies  which  is  as  in- 
nate in  the  natures  of  healthy-minded,  unsophisticated 
young  girls  as  the  love  of  dolls  and  pet  animals  is 
wide-spread  among  childlike  children.  Moreover, 
Pie  in  her  work  on  behalf  of  the  public  came  across 
a  good  many  babies  of  all  kinds,  and  was  qualified 
to  speak  almost  like  a  grandmother  on  their  weight 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  155 

under  six  months,  the  teeth  they  ought  to  have  at  a 
year  old,  and  how  soon  they  should  begin  to  walk, 
with  what  were  the  comparative  merits  and  demerits 
of  crawling  over  the  carpet  as  an  exercise  before  the 
first  peripatetic  attempts. 

Mrs.  Parry  was  very  much  struck  by  Miss  Stubbs. 
She  thought  her  one  of  the  nicest,  most  intelligent 
girls  she  had  ever  met,  twice  as  womanly  as  Harry 
was,  though  Miss  Stubbs  was  too  dowdily  dressed  to 
admit  of  her  having  come  out.  Mrs.  Parry  began 
to  reckon  what  a  very  great  loss  it  would  have  been 
for  her  younger  sister  not  to  have  known  these 
excellent  friendly  people  the  Stubbses,  so  close  at 
hand  too  that  Harry,  not  having  a  Tom,  might  apply 
to  them  in  all  her  little  difficulties. 

The  young  matron  had  failed  to  recognize  in  Pie 
a  girl  Mrs.  Parry  had  seen  on  her  last  visit  to  her 
father's.  The  sisters  had  been  walking  through  the 
village,  and  had  encountered  an  ill-dressed  blowsy 
girl,  equipped  with  a  clergy  woman's  basket.  Harriet 
had  bowed  slightly,  and  Mrs.  Parry,  who  had  a  flut- 
tered notion  that  she  ought  to  keep  a  sharp  look-out 
on  Harry's  acquaintances,  just  as  Tom  had  his  wife's 
visiting-list  under  his  strict  supervision,  asked 
quickly,  "  "Who  was  that,  dear  ?  I  thought  the  vicar 
had  no  daughters." 


156  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Neither  has  he.  That  is  nobody  connected  with 
the  vicar,  unless,  indeed,  she  counts  as  one  of  his 
curates,"  answered  Harriet.  "  That  is  one  of  our 
neighbors  at  the  cottage  who  don't  care  to  visit 
us." 

"  Why,  Harry,  I  think  you  may  be  thankful," 
said  Mrs.  Parry,  with  animation.  "  She  is  scarcely 
presentable — quite  a  common-looking  girl — a  regu- 
lar guy,  Tom  would  say — to  be  a  young  lady.  Any 
milliner's  apprentice  or  shop-girl  would  be  a  hundred 
times  smarter." 

"  Smarter — yes.  But  though  we  all  call  ourselves 
smart  nowadays,  I  don't  know  that  smartness  is  the 
distinguishing  mark  of  a  gentlewoman,"  said  Harriet, 
carelessly. 

"  I  don't  understand  you,"  said  little  Mrs.  Parry, 
helplessly.  "  Surely  it  is  always  desirable  to  be  well 
dressed.  Tom  would  not  allow  me  to  be  otherwise. 
Of  course  the  style  of  dress  is  every  thing ;  and  there 
is  a  style  that  milliners'  apprentices  and  shop-girls 
don't  aspire  to,  or  cannot  attain  if  they  do  aspire  to 
it.  I  only  know  that  if  the  Sherwins  and  the  Bridge- 
norths  come  down  here  next  week,  a  girl  like  the 
one  we  passed  would  have  been  entirely  out  of  place 
among  them." 

"  If  she  were  good  enough  for  us  to  know,  I  think 


QIRL  NEIGHBORS.  157 

the  Sherwins  and  Bridgenorths  might  have  put  up 
with  her  ! "  said  Harriet  with  some  disdain. 

"  Oh,  Harry,  only  fancy  her  beside  Avice  Sher- 
win  or  Nora  Bridgenorth !  And  you  could  not  well 
have  got  off  from  inviting  her  if  you  had  visited, 
with  her  and  her  family  living  so  very  near.  Not  to 
know  them  by  their  own  act  is  a  good  riddance, 
which  you  will  appreciate  better,  dear,  when  you 
are  more  familiar  with  your  position  and  duties  at 
the  head  of  my  father's  establishment,"  ended  Mrs. 
Parry  with  wonderful  sapiency  and  sententiousness ; 
indeed,  she  was  borrowing  piecemeal  from  Tom. 

"  How  long  have  you  been  married,  Nanny  ?  "  in- 
quired Harriet  abruptly,  breaking  in  ruthlessly  on 
the  small  peroration. 

"  You  must  remember,"  answered  Nanny,  half  in 
amazement,  half  in  affront ;  "  why,  a  year  and  a 
half  ago,  of  course — not  a  year  after  Georgie's  mar- 
riage, though  Georgie  is  quite  three  years  my 
senior."  She  recalled  the  fact  with  manifest  pride 
and  satisfaction. 

"  No  doubt  there  is  a  greater  difference  between  our 
ages — yours  and  mine,  I  mean,"  admitted  Harriet. 
"  But  when  I  had  ceased  to  be  a  child,  long  before 
your  marriage,  people  did  not  always  guess  the  dif- 
ference ;  and  I  had  my  way  generally." 


158  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  You  were  so  far  forward  and  headstrong  always, 
Harry,"  said  Mrs.  Parry  with  a  shake  of  her  own 
head  in  a  hat  that  was  beyond  reproach.  "  You 
ought  not  to  be  so  masterful.  Your  husband  will 
not  like  it.  Tom  could  not  stand  it." 

"  I  shall  not  ask  Tom's  leave,  begging  his  and  your 
pardon.  /  have  not  got  a  husband  yet ;  I  shall 
take  care  not  to  get  one  for  many  a  day  to  come,  if 
I  ever  do." 

"  Oh,  Harry,  you  would  not  be  the  old  maid  of 
the  family,"  cried  the  bride  of  a  year  and  and  a  half 
ago,  in  horror. 

"Why  not?"  asked  Harriet  coolly.  "I  don't 
think  I  should  mind — very  likely  I  shall.  But  I  say 
Nanny,  does  a  year  and  a  half's  experience  of 
matrimony  offer  so  great  an  advantage  that  you 
are  entitled  to  lecture  me  on  my  position  and  duties 
—when  I  have  my  father  to  tell  me  all  that  is 
necessary  ? " 

"  My  father  is  very  good,  dear,  as  a  father — no 
one  would  acknowledge  it  more  readily  than  I ;  but 
I  am  a  married  woman,"  announced  Mrs.  Parry 
with  dignity,  as  if  that  promotion  put  an  end  to  the 
dispute. 

Mrs.  Parry  had  forgotten  all  about  this  previous 
encounter  and  conversation  when  she  was  so  charmed 


OIBL  NEIGHBORS.  159 

with  Pie  Stubbs'  intelligent  interest  in  babies.  The 
young  mother  thought  it  worth  while  to  ring  for 
nurse  to  display  the  infant  phenomenon.  Pie  had 
the  honor  of  holding  it  in  her  arms  for  a  minute, 
when  she  did  not  say  bluntly,  as  her  mother  had 
said  a  little  earlier,  that  the  child  was  very  small, 
and  ought  to  be  kept  a  great  deal  out  in  the  open 
air  when  the  weather  was  good,  to  make  him  grow. 
Pie's  remarks  were  more  pleasing,  while  they  were 
perfectly  sincere.  She  found  Mrs.  Parry's  baby 
firm-fleshed  though  he  might  be  small-boned.  She 
thought  he  had  a  great  deal  more  expression  in  his 
face  than  was  to  be  seen  in  the  faces  of  very  big 
fat  babies. 

Mrs.  Parry  was  more  and  more  delighted  with 
Pie's  sense  and  womanliness,  and  only  withdrew 
with  a  regretful  apology  that  it  was  the  hour  for 
her  son's  having  his  panada.  She  was  sure  Miss 
Stubbs  knew  the  importance  of  babies  being  fed 
punctually  and  properly,  and  would  excuse  a  mother, 
as  her  first  obligation,  particularly  in  Mr.  Parry's 
absence,  was  to  her  child. 

Pie  felt  that  she  did  not  gain  ground  \vith  Har- 
riet Cotton  in  the  same  way  that  her  simple  arts  had 
enabled  her  to  win  Mrs.  Parry's  favor.  Harriet 
made  no  secret  of  the  truth  that  babies  were 


160  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

anything  rather  than  a  passport  to  her  heart. 
"What  a  relief,"  she  suffered  herself  to  cry  with 
fervor  when  the  door  closed  on  mother,  nurse,  and 
child,  "  though  it  is  ray  sister  and  my  nephew  !  Xo 
doubt  it  will  shock  you  to  hear  me  say  it ;  but  if 
there  is  a  thing  I  cannot  endure  it  is  a  doting 
mother  and  her  squalling  progeny."  And  Harriet 
lay  back  with  one  arm  thrown  round  the  side  of 
her  lounging-chair,  waiting  nonchalantly  for  Pie  to 
be  shocked. 

Pie  was  half-amused,  half-vexed ;  she  had  a 
shrewd  suspicion  that  Harriet  Cotton  deliberately 
meant  to  shock  her,  and  that  if  Harriet  had  been  in 
better  spirits  she  would  have  greatly  enjoyed  the 
operation. 

"  Don't  you  like  when  the  little  tiling  comes  to 
visit  you,"  Pie  suggested,  "  to  watch  it  growing  to 
find  out  whom  it  '  favors,'  as  the  old  people  in 
Maidsmeadows  say,  to  discover  when  it  begins  to 
know  you  ? " 

"  I  can't  say  I  do,"  answered  Harriet  with  dry 
candor.  "I  don't  pay  enough  attention.  lam  glad 
to  get  the  morsel  out  of  my  head,  its  perfections  are 
so  dinned  into  my  ears." 

"  Besides,  babies  are  so  pretty,"  remonstrated 
Pie. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  161 

"  Are  they  ? "  demanded  Harriet  incredulously. 
"  This  one  is  all  gaping  mouth,  it  has  no  nose  to 
speak  of,  and  it  has  such  winking  eyes.  What 
Nanny,  my  sister,  finds  to  worship  in  it  I  can't 
imagine." 

"  Don't  you  admire  its  hands  and  feet  ?  " 

"  If  they  were  not  forever  grasping  and  kicking,  I 
might.  But  I  must  protest  against  its  ears — they 
stand  out  like  the  handles  of  a  box." 

Pie  would  have  hoped  that  Harriet  Cotton  was  at 
least  diverted  and  amused  in  her  own  way  by  ex- 
pressing this  kind  of  criticism,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  restless  air  by  which  pain,  and  grief,  and 
longing,  showed  that  they  got  the  better  of  lan- 
guor. 

"  Mr.  Stubbs  is  to  be  so  good  as  to  go  up  to  town 
ajid  call  at  the  counting-house  to-morrow."  Harriet 
retailed  the  arrangement  for  Pie's  benefit.  "I 
should  have  been  very  much  obliged  to  him  if  it  had 
not  been  that  it  prevents  me  from  going.  I  should 
have  been  there  already  with  my  father  before  any- 
body could  have  stopped  me,  if  your  mother  had  not 
come  over  and  proposed  to  ascertain  first  how  my 
father  was  going  on.  I  was  taken  by  surprise,  and 
her  proposal  was  so  great  a  favor  from  a  stranger 
that  I  did  not  like  to  contradict  her.  Besides,  your 


162  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

mother  looked  as  if  she  was  not  accustomed  to  be 
contradicted.  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know  why  I  gave 
in,"  explained  Harriet  in  naive  astonishment  at  her 
own  unusual  meekness. 

"  And  I  am  sure  it  was  for  the  best,"  urged  Pie 
earnestly.  "  You  are  ill — you  are  not  able  to  nurse 
Mr.  Cotton.  Perhaps  you  have  not  been  accustomed 
to  nurse  people.  The  sight  of  you  would  have  put 
your  father  about,  after  he  had  said  you  were 
not  to  go  to  him.  It  might  have  done  him  a  great 
deal  of  harm." 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Harriet  obstinately. 
"  Do  you  think  I  should  have  minded  having  a  pain 
in  my  back,  like  a  rheumatic  old  woman,  if  I  could 
have  done  any  good  to  my  father.  I  should  not 
have  needed  to  be  tcld  what  to  do,  I  should  have 
done  it  by  instinct,  just  because  he  is  my  father," 
she  insisted,  with  a  sob  in  her  throat  to  which  she 
would  not  have  given  egress  for  the  world.  "  He 
would  have  been  pleased  to  see  me,  whatever  he  had 
said  beforehand.  I  could  not  have  harmed  him. 
Now,  Laura,  my  eldest  sister,  has  her  husband  want- 
ing her,  though  she  has  no  children,  and  she  does 
not  know  half  so  well  as  I  how  my  father  likes  his 
soup  seasoned — about  his  egg  being  boiled  hard  at 
breakfast-time — and  about  the  brands  of  the  wine.  It 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  163 

is  horrid  to  have  everything  done  wrong  when  he  is 
ill."  Harriet  started  up  in  her  provocation  from 
her  lounging-chair  and  began  to  limp  up  and  down 
the  room  ;  but  the  exertion  was  too  much  for  her, 
she  grew  paler  than  ever,  and  subsided  impatiently 
into  her  old  position. 

Pie  had  smiled  faintly  to  herself ;  she  had  had 
very  little  personal  or  family  experience,  happily 
for  her,  of  violent  illness,  though  Mr.  Stubbs  was  in 
some  respects  a  confirmed  invalid.  But  her  visits  to 
the  cottage  hospital  had  taught  her  this  amount  of 
knowledge — that  seasoning  in  soup,  hard-boiled  eggs, 
and  brands  of  wine  would  be  out  of  Mr.  Cotton's 
way  for  some  weeks  at  least.  Another  thing  of 
which  Pie  was  not  altogether  confident  was  that 
pure  instinct  would  teach  anybody  practical  nursing, 
though  it  Avas  instinct — that  of  another  loving 
daughter's  heart — which  inspired  her  to  soothe 
Harriet  with  the  assurance,  "  You  will  hear  very 
soon  exactly  how  he  is.  If  he  is  going  on  well  and 
likely  to  get  better  fast — as  I  think  it  is  very  prob- 
able he  is — Mr.  Cotton  has  always  looked  so  well 
and  strong — you  will  not  mind  so  much  not  being 
with  him ;  and  if  there  is  any  need,  you  can  go  up  to 
him  at  once,  when  you  will  perhaps  be  stronger  and 
fitter  for  the  journey.  Besides,  you  will  be  doing 
what  he  wishes,  which  is  the  great  thing." 


164  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Harriet  remained  gloomily  silent,  as  if  she  objected 
to  her  father's  having  any  wishes  save  her  -own, 
especially  any  wish  that  she  should  not  be  with 
him. 

"  I  have  brought  a  book  by  the  author  of  "  Yera," 
you  and  your  sister  may  not  have  seen  it.  My 
mother  and  I  liked  it  very  much,"  said  Pie,  half 
timidly.  "  I  gathered  these  primroses  this  morning 
from  the  tufts  beneath  the  mulberry  tree.  There 
are  not  many  flowers  yet." 

"  Oh,  thanks  !  "  said  Harriet,  without  more  thank- 
fulness in  her  voice  and  manner  than  common  polite- 
ness called  for.  "  I  daresay  there  are  not  many 
primroses  in  the  garden.  I  have  not  been  out  to  see 
since  *  Lady  Jane  '  chose  to  throw  me.  Floyd,  our 
gardener,  always  contrives  to  have  a  bank  in  the 
greenhouse  that  suits  them.  I'll  ring,"  suiting  the 
action  to  the  word  before  Pie  could  interpose,  "  and 
get  these  primroses  put  into  water." 

Pie  saw  the  flowers  which  she  had  gathered  with 
pains  and  pleasure  that  morning  carried  away  on  a 
salver  by  a  stonily  supercilious  footman.  She  had 
a  conviction  that  even  if  they  were  brought  back, 
Harriet  would  never  cast  eyes  on  them  again. 

"  I  don't  believe  the  book-box  has  been  opened 
since  it  came  yesterday."  Harriet  rang  again  for 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  165 

the  footman  to  bring  in  the  box,  which  might  con- 
tain treasures  of  wit  and  wisdom.  She  unlocked  it 
listlessly.  "  I  should  not  say  that  we  were  readers 
except  by  fits  and  starts,"  she  said.  "  Only  the 
'  Baby's  Annual ' — I  think  there  is  such  a  profound 
work — would  attract  Anne  for  any  length  of  time  ; 
and  I  tire  of  books,"  she  ended,  discontentedly,  turn- 
ing over  a  dozen  volumes  and  barely  looking  at 
their  titles. 

"  Tire  of  books  ! "  Pie  could  not  help  exclaiming. 
"  I  wish  I  had  the  chance.  But  I  never  heard  of 
any  of  these  books,"  she  remarked  with  a  little 
surprise,  as  she  read  the  names  of  those  nearest  to 
her. 

"  I  dare  say  not.  I  believe  the  librarian  sends  us 
all  the  rubbish  in  the  library,"  said  Harriet,  check- 
ing a  yawn  ;  "  while  you,  I  suppose,  only  read  the 
excellent  books  Mrs.  Stubbs  recommends." 

In  spite  of  Harriet's  good  breeding,  there  was  a 
certain  covert  impertinence  in  her  speech.  In  fact 
there  may  be  a  good  deal  of  impertinence  slightly 
veiled  under  the  best  superficial  good  manners.  She 
had  the  grace  to  be  ashamed  of  it  the  next  moment, 
and  as  if  to  make  amends,  she  put  Pie's  volume  con- 
spicuously apart  from  the  others  with  the  observa- 
tion :  "  No  doubt  this  is  better  worth,  and  as  you 


166  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

took  the  trouble  to  bring  it,  and  say  you  liked  it,  I 
shall  read  it." 

Pie  failed  to  express  her  gratitude  for  the  conde- 
scension, amends  or  no  amends.  She  had  a  spirit 
of  her  own  and  was  not  slow  of  comprehension. 
She  answered  straightforwardly  Harriet's  implica- 
tion. "  If  I  wish  particularly  to  see  any  book — not 
a  bad  book,  of  course — my  mother  lets  me  order  it ; 
but  I  have  not  a  great  deal  of  time  for  reading,  and 
it  would  be  a  pity,  don't  you  think,  at  my  age,  to 
waste  the  little  time  on  what  one  knows  nothing 
about  ?  There  are  so  many  standard  books  1  ought 
to  read.  Indeed,"  said  Pie  in  her  honest}1",  "  there 
are  so  many  good  books  on  all  subjects,  well  worth 
reading  by  everybody,  that  I  am  rather  surprised  at 
your  letting  the  librarian  send  you  rubbish." 

"  Oh,  it  does  not  signifiy,"  said  Harriet  coolly, 
"  when  I  usually  read  to  pass  the  time,  and  a  silly 
book  serves  about  as  well  as  a  wiser  one.  If  I 
waited  till  I  wanted  particularly  to  read,  I  am  afraid 
I  should  not  often  open  a  book." 

Pie  was  dumb. 

"  There  are  girls  who  are  always  wanting  to  do 
something,"  said  Harriet  didactically,  "  as  there  are 
girls  who  adore  babies— jeunes  ingenues,  sweet  inno- 
cents— all  their  unmarried,  or,  for  that  matter,  their 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  16? 

married  lives.  But  I  am  not  one  of  those  ingenuous 
young  persons.  There  is  no  gush  about  me,  I  warn 
you,  Miss  Stubbs." 

"  I  don't  care  for  gush,"  said  Pie,  indignantly. 

Harriet  went  on  without  heeding  her  companion. 
"  I  don't  feel  that  I  want  anything  very  much.  I 
don't  mean  to  pretend  for  a  moment  that  I  am  con- 
tented," she  broke  off,  in  horror  at  such  an  amiable 
misconception,  "only  there  is  not  much  in  life  that 
really  deserves  one's  wishing  for  it  greatly.  Don't 
you  agree  with  me  ? " 

"  No,"  said  Pie  as  bluntly  as  her  mother  would 
have  spoken.  "  There  are  numbers  of  things  I  wish 
for  with  all  my  heart,  and  I  am  convinced  they  de- 
serve to  be  heartily  wished  for." 

"  It  is  like  asking  if  life  is  worth  living — a  ques- 
tion that  was  put  in  a  great  many  forms  lately," 
said  Harriet,  speculatively. 

"  I  think  it  might  be  in  any  circumstances,  even 
if  it  were  closely  confined  to  one  kind  of  life,"  said 
Pie  thoughtfully.  "  But  as  it  is  I  am  sure  life  is 
immensely  worth  living." 

"  I  knew  she  would  try  to  preach  a  sermon  at 
me,"  reflected  Harriet  with  acrimony,  "  the  self- 
righteous  little  prig  and  humbug !  "  but  she  only 
said  carelessly,  "  Somebody  called  life  '  intensely 


168  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

interesting,'  but  I  am  persuaded  he  or  she  did  not 
live  in  the  country." 

"Don't  you  like  the  country  then?  Are  you 
sorry  Mr.  Cotton  ever  came  to  Maidsmeadows  ? " 
asked  Pie,  wistfully.  It  seemed  such  treason  to 
Maidsmeadows,  which  everybody  said  was  a  de- 
lightful rural  neighborhood,  to  the  manor  house,  to 
the  beautiful  room  in  which  the  girls  sat,  to 
attribute  such  sentiments  to  Harriet. 

"  According  to  my  line  of  argument,"  Harriet 
answered,  "  there  is  really  nothing  much  worth 
being  glad  or  sorry  for."  She  stopped  suddenly 
with  a  secret  thrill  of  terror  and  anguish.  What 
was  she  saying  ?  Nothing  much  worth  being  sorry 
for !  when  her  father  was  lying  ill  of  fever  up  in 
London,  and  the  very  next  post  might  bring  the 
worst  news — news  she  could  never  get  over  though 
she  might  not  die  of  it,  she  might  even  live  to  be 
old  ?  What  if  God  took  her  at  her  rash,  insincere 
word,  and  punished  her  for  her  affectation,  which 
now  seemed  to  be  profane  as  well  as  silly  and  false, 
by  sending  her  what  she  professed  not  to  dread ! 

But  the  moment  Harriet  recovered  herself  she 
was  only  the  more  provoked  with  Pie  Stubbs  for 
having  led  her,  Harriet,  as  she  considered,  to  make 
such  a  reckless,  ill-omened  speech. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  169 

"  I  was  afraid  you  were  going  to  tell  me  the 
stale  story  of  '  Eyes  and  No  Eyes,'  "  she  said  pet- 
tishly ;  "  as  I  am  not  in  any  light  a  naturalist  and 
have  not  the  least  bit  of  Frank  Buckland  in  me,  it 
would  be  singularly  inappropriate." 

"  It  is  a  pity,"  said  Pie  simply,  not  intending  to  be 
more  trying  than  she  could  help,  but  as  it  happened 
Harriet  disliked  pity  of  all  things. 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  it  is  a  pity  that  there  are  not 
more  superior  people  in  the  world,"  she  said  with  a 
curling  lip ;  "  but  you  see  it  cannot  be  helped,  so 
one  must  just  put -up  with  the  scum  or  the  dregs, 
whatever  you  like  to  call  them.  The  country  is 
well  enough  in  its  way  if  people  do  not  stay  too 
long  in  it,  as  my  father  has  been  doing,  pottering 
about  that  stupid  farm.  But,  oh !  what  would  I  not 
give  to  have  him  there  now  among  his  wheat  hoers 
and  turnip  weeders !  "  she  broke  off  and  cried  incon- 
sistently with  such  a  ring  of  genuine  sorrow  in  her 
tone  that  Pie  was  very  sorry  too,  and  freely  forgave 
the  offenses  of  which  Harriet  Cotton,  to  tell  the 
truth,  had  not  been  sparing. 

"  She  does  not  know  what  she  is  saying.  She  is 
inclined  to  quarrel  with  everybody  and  everything, 
like  a  child  that  has  had  its  toys  taken  away."  Pie 
came  to  the  sage  and  charitable  conclusion. 


170  Q1RL  NEIGHBORS. 

Pie  tried  to  change  the  subject  again  and  to  say  any- 
thing she  conscientiously  could  which  might  sound 
agreeable  to  Harriet.  "  What  a  lovely  room  this 
is ! "  Pie  exclaimed,  eagerly.  "  I  know  I  ought  not 
to  look  round  me  and  make  remarks.  Even  in  this 
corner  of  the  world  we  know  a  little  better  than 
that,"  she  said  with  mock  gravity  and  a  dash  of 
humor  in  her  gray  eyes ;  "  but  I  never  saw  any- 
thing half  so  lovely  as  this.  I  should  think  it  would 
be  a  pleasure  in  itself  to  live  here." 

Harriet  did  not  seem  impressed  or  mollified.  She 
was  accustomed  to  praises  of  the  freshly-fitted-up 
house  till  they,  and  it  too,  palled  upon  her. 

"  The  decorators  did  their  work  tolerably  well," 
she  said  wearily.  "  I  remember  admiring  it  when 
we  came  first,  but  1  soon  cease  to  pay  attention  to 
what  I  see  day  after  day.  The  house  and  the  coun- 
try are  well  enough,  as  I  said,"  she  added,  repeating 
a  favorite  phrase,  "  when  one  is  not  left  too  much 
alone  in  them." 

Pie  looked  guilty,  for  she  felt  Harriet  Cotton 
might  be  reflecting  on  such  near  neighbors  as  the 
Stubbses  for  leaving  her  alone.  But  Pie  found  the 
next  moment  that  the  speaker  was  not  thinking  of 
anybody  in  or  near  Maidsmeadows. 

"  It  does  not  do  to  trust  to  country  neighbors," 


OIHL  NEIGHBORS.  171 

said  Harriet,  candidly  ;  "  if  we  are  not  Philistines 
to  them,  they  are  Philistines  to  us.  You  do  not 
mind  me  saying  so  Miss  Stubbs  ?  Excuse  me,  but 
I  hope  you  are  not  in  the  habit  of  taking  things  to 
yourself." 

"  I  hope  I  am  not  so  foolish,"  said  Pie,  coloring, 
but  the  next  moment  she  recovered  her  temper. 
Harriet  Cotton  was  ill  and  unhappy  ;  if  Pie  could 
not  comfort  her,  at  least  Pie  was  not  there  to  catch 
up  Harriet's  words  and  resent  them.  "No  one 
could  find  fault  with  your  present  speech,  Miss 
Cotton,"  she  found  presence  of  mind  to  say,  "  for  it 
is  perfectly  impartial.  But  you  often  have  the 
company  you  have  been  accustomed  to  with  you. 
I  have  seen  and  heard  from  a  little  distance,  and 
thought  how  gay  you  were,  and  how  grand  it  must 
all  be,  though  I  could  not  have  imagined  this,"  look- 
ing round  her  with  renewed  admiration,  "  and  grand 
is  not  the  right  word." 

"  Did  we  look  gay  to  you  ? "  inquired  Harriet, 
slightly  propitiated  and  interested.  "  But  one  gets 
wearied  of  gayety  too,  especially  in  the  country. 
Now  we  should  have  had  far  greater  variety  even 
when  we  were  out  of  town  if  we  had  not  been 
settled  down  here.  It  would  not  have  been  tennis 
parties  and  dinners  and  little  dances,  and  drives 


172  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

and  rides  over  the  same  country  forever.  We 
should  have  gone  abroad,  or  we  should  have  bor- 
rowed somebody's  yacht,  Mr.  Vincent,  my  richest 
brother-in-law's  or  some  other  man's  boat.  We 
should  have  been  so  busy  arranging  tours  and 
trips  and  making  preparations,  as  well  as  travel- 
ing, that  we  should  not  have  had  time  to  get 
sick  of  everything  before  we  were  half  done  with 
it." 

"  I  suppose  it  would  be  very  nice,"  said  Pie 
vaguely,  "  but  I.  never  did  anything  of  the  kind  ;  " 
and  then  she  wondered  in  her  own  mind  what  it 
would  feel  like  to  be  sick  of  a  superfluity  of  tennis- 
parties,  dances,  and  dinners. 

"You  know,"  said  Harriet  with  a  desperate 
temptation  to  boast,  though  she  did  not  like  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  confidential  with  Pie  Stubbs  of 
all  people,  "I  am  at  the  head  of  my  father's  estab- 
lishment both  here  and  in  town.  I  am  accountable 
for  everything  going  off  well." 

"  I  did  not  think  of  that,"  said  Pie,  considerably 
impressed,  but  more  with  commiseration  than  envy. 
"  What  a  weight  it  must  be  on  your  mind  !  How  it 
must  keep  you  from  enjoying  things  like  other 
girls  !  What  should  I  do  without  my  mother  when 
we  have  company,  though  it  is  always  in  the  quiet- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  173 

est,  easiest  way,  because  we  are  not  rich  and  my 
father  has  not  good  health  !  When  we  have  people 
with  us  it  is  mostly  on  my  brother  Harry's  account, 
to  make  it  more  cheerful  for  him  at  home.  I  fancy 
you  got  used  to  it  when  you  were  quite  young," 
said  Pie,  with  gentle  mysteriousness,  as  if  the  late 
Mrs.  Cotton's  death,  which  had  taken  place  a  dozen 
years  before,  was  still  too  tender  a  subject  to  be 
plainly  mentioned  by  a  stranger  before  the  dead 
woman's  daughter.  "  What  a  loss  it  was,  too,  that 
all  your  elder  sisters  married  early!  I  have  my 
mother  and  father  and  brother,  but  I  have  often 
thought  how  nice  it  would  have  been  to  have  had 
sisters." 

Harriet  stared.  Was  Pie  Stubbs  an  utter  sim- 
pleton, or  an  impudent  pretender,  or  an  accom- 
plished hypocrite  ? 

"  Of  course,"  Harriet  answered  dryly  after  a  short 
pause.  "  But  there  are  such  cases  as  '  packs  of 
girls '  always  coming  in  each  other's  way,  always 
interfering  with  each  other,  as  jealous  as  jealous  can 
be  of  each  other's  claims.  We  were  not  altogether 
out  of  the  nursery  and  schoolroom,  but  I  remember 
feeling  ashamed,  though  I  was  so  young,  of  appear- 
ing once  or  twice  in  public,  in  a  regular  mob  of  girls. 
My  father  was  very  good,  and  made  no  complaint, 


174  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

but  he  must  have  felt  it  and  been  aware  that  people 
were  pitying  and  laughing  at  him,  and  wondering 
what  he  was  to  do  with  so  many  daughters,  though 
there  was  no  call  for  us  to  work  for  our  bread.  I 
assure  you  he  has  been  considered  a  very  fortunate 
man  to  get  so  many  of  us  off  his  hands  quite 
creditably  so  soon.  I  have  been  congratulated,  with 
reason,  on  having  no  rival  queen  to  share  my  king- 
dom. I  confess  I  like  to  be  undisputed  mistress  of 
my  father's  house,  to  get  all  the  credit  and  compli- 
ments that  belong  to  the  position  of  Miss  Cotton— 
the  only  Miss  Cotton.  Imagine  having  to  stand 
aside  for  the  other  girls  because  they  happen  to  be 
born  a  few  years  before  me,  having  to  consult  their 
opinions  and  defer  to  their  wishes  as  if  they  were 
each  of  them  my  grandmother ! " 
It  was  Pie's  turn  to  stare. 

* 

"People  say,"  continued  Harriet  with  languid 
decision,  "  that  no  house  full  of  young  women  ought 
to  be  either  expected  or  compelled  to  live  together 
after  they  are  out  of  their  teens.  Girls  if  they  don't 
marry  in  their  first  or  second  season,  should  strike 
out  independent  careers  for  themselves." 

"  I  never  had  a  sister,"  said  Pie,  sknvly ;  "  but  I 
wish  you  could  hear  my  mother  speak  of  her  sister 
Nancy.  No  doubt  there  must  be  sisters  and  sisters, 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  175 

but,  with  some  inevitably  sad  exceptions,  I  believe 
there  used  to  be  sisters  living  together  from  youth 
to  age,  not  only  amicably,  but,  oh  !  devotedly  and 
tenderly  attached  to  each  other,  like  my  mother 
and  my  Aunt  Nancy.  My  mother  says  it  is  not 
the  fashion  now  to  praise  Hannah  More  ;  but  when 
she  was  young  she  knew  an  old  woman  who  had 
lived  with  the  five  Misses  More,  as  Patty  Luke  lived 
with  the  Misses  Fuller  at  our  cottage,  and  my 
mother's  old  woman  could  never  say  enough  of  the 
peace  and  happiness  of  that  household  of  old  maids. 
Patty  lived  both  here  at  the  manor  house  and  after- 
ward at  the  cottage,  and  she  tells  to  this  day  how 
united  the  family  were  and  how  fond  of  each  other, 
so  that  even  when  the  squire  was  going  to  be 
married  the  idea  of  parting  was  too  painful  to  him. 
It  is  impossible  to  think  of  the  Misses  Fullers  strik- 
ing out  independent  careers  for  themselves,"  fin- 
ished Pie,  laughing,  and  yet  with  a  touch  of  pathos 
in  the  laughter. 

"I  daresay  they  were  much  too  stupid,"  said 
Harriet,  contemptuously,  "  especially  if  they  were 
like  their  foolish  brother  who  made  all  these  cats' 
walks  and  absurd  little  bridges,  to  bring  into  close 
contact  relations  who  ought  to  have  been  kept  at 
a  respectful  distance." 


176  OIllL  NEIGHBORS 

Pie  could  stand  this  no  longer.  It  was  all  very 
well,  or  ill,  for  her  mother  to  air  such  sentiments 
with  regard  to  the  old  Fullers.  Pie  knew  her 
mother  did  not  mean  all  she  said — quite.  But  for  a 
girl  like  Pie's  self  to  fall  foul  of  the  old  squire  who 
had  been  so  trustful  and  hopeful  in  his  young  manli- 
ness and  happiness,  was  the  additional  straw  that 
threatened  to  break  the  camel's  back.  Pie  hastened 
to  make  her  exit,  leaving  Harriet  Cotton  to  come  to 
the  conclusion,  half  with  a  certain  hardened  exulta- 
tion, half  with  swift  compunction,  that  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  rendering  herself  "  a  disagreeable  wretch." 
She  had  teased  and  hurt  Pie  Stiibbs  pretty  consider- 
ably in  return  for  the  Stubbs'  unauthorized,  officious 
meddling  in  the  Cottons'  affairs. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTEK  X. 

FIRMER      GROUND. 

IF  PIE  had  been  guilty  of  hankering  after  Harriet 
Cotton's  acquaintance,  a  crime  of  which  her  mother 
had  accused  her,  the  tvro  girls'  first  interview  nearly 
cured  the  hankerer  of  her  foolish  inclination.  She 
would  certainly  not  have  gone  back  to  the  manor 
house  under  ordinary  circumstances.  She  was  not 
fanciful,  but  she  was  at  an  age  to  feel  particularly 
sore  at  being  made  game  of  and  laughed  at.  "  She 
thinks  us  all  Philistines,"  Pie  told  her  mother  dole- 
fully, though  she  qualified  the  expression  of  her 
opinion  by  saying,  "  I  have  no  doubt  that  they — the 
Cottons — are  Philistines  in  our  eyes.  She  does  not 
like  girls.  She  does  not  approve  of  sisters." 

"  Precisely,"  answered  Mrs.  Stubbs  concisely  and 
oracularly. 

But  Harriet  Cotton  was  ill,  in  trouble,  in  danger 
of  taking  a  false  step  from  which  she  might  suffer 
all  her  life  afterward.  If  Pie's  going  to  her  served 
at  all  to  pass  the  time  and  to  prevent  the  catastrophe 


178  GIRL  NKIOBBOR8. 

there  was  no  choice.  Pie,  who  had  been  trained  not 
to  consider  her  inclinations  first  and  last,  but  to 
think  of  others  beside  herself,  felt  there  was  none. 

Virtue  was  not  left  to  be  its  own  sole  reward. 
First,  Mr.  Stubbs  brought  down  as  good  news  as 
could  be  looked  for  of  Mr.  Cotton,  from  sources  be- 
yond suspicion,  from  the  impartial  counting-house, 
and  from  the  responsible  medical  man,  whom  the 
messenger  took  the  trouble  to  interview.  Mr.  Cot- 
ton's case  of  fever  was  not  bad,  was  not  even  severe  ; 
if  he  had  been  a  }rounger  man,  there  would  have 
been  nothing  to  be  anxious  about.  As  it  was,  he 
had  a  good,  unimpaired  constitution,  and  kept  up  his 
strength  remarkably  well.  Every  post  carried  con- 
firmation of  this  comforting  version  of  the  illness, 
until  at  last  the  welcome  announcement  reached 
Maidsmeadows  that  he  had  got  the  turn,  and  was 
likely  to  mend  with  wonderful  quickness  for  an 
elderly  man.  "  She  will  be  very  glad,  but  I  daresay 
her  tongue  will  be  sharper  than  ever,"  Pie  thought 
when  she  heard 

The  next  time  she  went  to  the  manor  house  she 
found,  to  her  surprise,  that  it  was  Harriet  Cotton 
and  not  Mrs.  Parry  who  was  in  a  dressing-gown  ;  in 
addition,  Harriet  was  confined  to  her  room.  Yet  no 
fiat  had  gone  forth  from  any  special  physician,  in 


QIEL  NEIGHBORS.  179 

fact,  no  special  physician  had  been  summoned  to  the 
manor  house.  It  had  been  decided  on  the  first  blush 
of  Mr.  Cotton's  illness  that  nothing  should  be  done 
where  Harriet  was  concerned  till  it  could  be  seen 
whether  it  would  be  advisable  for  her  to  run  the 
risk  of  joining  her  father. 

Pie  was  taken  to  Harriet's  room,  which  contained 
everythiug  that  the  heart  of  a  girl  could  desire.  Its 
owner  was  lying  on  a  sofa,  with  an  invalid's  table 
drawn  up  before  her.  She  received  Pie  under  these 
conditions  as  if  they  were  not  quite  temporary  but 
intended  to  last  at  least  for  a  time. 

"I  hope  you  are  not  worse,"  cried  Pie,  taken  by 
surprise. 

"  Xo,  thanks,"  said  Harriet,  with  a  comical  droop 
of  the  corners  of  her  mouth.  "I  have  only  given 
in.  I  kept  on  my  feet  to  be  ready  to  go  to  my 
father.  You  see  if  I  had  lain  down  they  might 
have  said  I  could  not  be  moved,  for  anything  that  I 
knew.  But  now  that  he  is  getting  better  fast,  I 
must  make  haste  to  get  well  too,  in  case  he  should 
beat  me.  It  is  nice  to  feel  justified  in  saying  that. 
To  tell  the  truth,  I  am  a  great  deal  more  comfort- 
able lying  down  ;  and  Dr.  Sanders  promises,  though 
he  and  I  have  been  quarreling  furiously  for  the  last 
fortnight,  that  if  I  keep  quite  still  for  a  week  or  ten 


180  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

days  he  may  be  able  to  tell  me  at  the  end  of  the 
time  that  there  is  nothing  really  far  wrong  with  me, 
and  that  I  shall  be  equal  to  going  about  again  pres- 
ently, the  same  as  ever,  without  pain  and  without 
limping.  You  must  have  seen  that  I  limped ;  odd 
isn't  it,  when  I  have  not  broken  my  leg  or  even 
sprained  my  ankle  ?  The  doctor  says  people  often 
stutter  when  there  is  nothing  wrong  with  their 
tongues." 

Harriet  did  look  much  less  suffering  and  worried 
than  she  had  looked  for  some  time.  The  contraction 
between  her  brows  was  gone,  the  ivory  tint  of  her 
skin  had  lost  its  sallowness. 

"How  brave  you  must  be  !"  exclaimed  Pie,  with 
unstinted  admiration. 

It  was  the  compliment  of  all  others  most  agree- 
able to  Harriet.  A  shade  of  pink  came  into  her 
white  cheeks  and  her  great  dark  eyes  softened.  "  It 
is  good  of  you  to  say  so.  I  don't  think  I  am  very 
brave.  I  can  screw  my  courage  up  to  a  certain 
point  for  a  certain  time — that  is  about  all.  I  dare 
say  you  are  braver  than  I." 

Pie  shook  her  head.  "  I  don't  think  I  am.  My 
mother  says  I  don't  bear  pain  well — only  a  little 
better  than  Harry  bears  it.  Boys  and  men  are  al- 
ways very  impatient,  you  know." 


QIRL  NEIGHBORS.  181 

"  Is  that  true  ?  I  mean,  are  you  speaking  fairly  ? 
for  I  do  not  know.  I  thought  it  was  women  who 
always  complained." 

"  I  do  not  think  that  you  are  fair  to  women,"  said 
Pie  stoutly.  "  But  I  don't  wish  to  contradict  you, 
now  that  your  illness  is — is  brought  before  me," 
said  Pie  naively.  "  Has  the  pain  been  very  bad  ?  " 

"  Like  toothache  in  my  back,"  explained  Harriet, 
knitting  her  brows  forcibly  again  at  the  recollec- 
tion. 

"  Oh,  dear,  oh  dear  !  "  cried  Pie  in  dismay ;  "  and 
I  was  arguing  with  you  and  talking  to  you  by  the 
hour ! " 

"Never  mind.  You  did  not  mean  to  hurt  me. 
It  was  kind  of  you  to  come,  and  I  am  sure  I  was  as 
cross  as  a  bear." 

"  It  was  not  kind,"  said  Pie,  not  to  be  outdone  in 
self-reproach.  "  I  did  it  because  I  could  not  help  it. 
I  did  not  do  it  willingly  ;  I  was  always  grudging 
the  time,  though  we  are  so  near,  and  though  I  was 
not  required  particularly,  and  my  mother  did  all 
that  was  wanted  of  me  elsewhere." 

"  How  much  in  request  you  are ! "  exclaimed 
Harriet,  not  without  a  touch  of  satire,  in  spite  of 
her  present  good  behavior.  "  A  girl  like  you  ? 
Why,  nobody  wants  me  much.  Poor  old  Walls 


LS2  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

only  pretends  to,  I  believe  to  please  me,  and  to 
maintain  my  credit.  You  can  judge  for  yourself ; 
the  house  goes  on  better  than  ever  with  me  lying 
here." 

"  It  is  different  with  you — your  father  is  rich. 
You  have  a  number  of  servants.  But  it  was  not  in 
the  house  I  meant — I  do  what  I  can  there,  of 
course,  but  my  mother  is  a  good  housekeeper  and 
very  active  ;  while  our  old  cook  is  most  trusty- 
worthy,  and  does  not  like  anybody  except  my 
mother  to  give  her  orders — at  the  same  time  she 
has  always  been  nice  to  Harry  and  me — the  fact  is, 
she  adores  Harry.  Lydia,  our  housemaid,  is  more 
my  charge,  but  she  knows  her  work  pretty  well 
now,  and  we  don't  keep  much  company." 

"  Well,  in  the  house  or  out  of  the  house,  I  am  not 
of  much  consequence,  though  I  am  professedly  at 
the  head  of  my  father's  establishment,  as  people 
say,"  remarked  Harriet,  with  an  elevation  of  the 
chin  peculiar  to  her,  which  she  managed  to  accom- 
plish though  she  was  lying  on  her  back.  "Even 
my  own  father,  it  seems,  can  do  without  me,  can 
be  ill  and  get  well  again,  and  dispense  with  my 
company." 

"  You  must  not  say  that,"  said  Pie  in  her  wise  old 
woman's  way,  which  was  yet  fresh  and  sweet,  in  its 
unaffected  sincerity. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  183 

In  spite  of  the  continual  sparring  which  had  gone 
on  where  the  new  acquaintances  were  in  question, 
the  informality  of  the  visits  Pie  paid,  and  the  pro- 
longed association  between  the  two  girls,  had  paved 
the  way  for  a  degree  of  familiarity  in  their  inter- 
course. 

"  Your  father  kept  you  away  for  your  own  sake," 
she  went  on,  "  because  there  might  have  been  infec- 
tion for  you,  and  you  were  ill.  Whenever  the  in- 
fection is  gone  and  you  are  stronger,  mark  my  words, 
he  will  not  be  able  to  do  without  you.  How  pretty 
your  room  is — almost  as  delightful  to  look  at  as  the 
drawing-room  is ! " 

"  Would  you  like  to  go  round  and  look  at  my 
things  ? "  asked  Harriet  graciously.  "  Many  of 
them,  such  as  that  time-piece,  we  picked  up  abroad. 
The  book-case  was  once  in  a  monk's  cell,  an  aesthetic 
monk  he  must  have  been.  The  jewel-case,  I  need 
not  say,  did  not  belong  to  a  nun.  It  was  one  of  the 
private  possessions  of  the  Countess  Diane  de  Polig- 
nac,  the  sister-in-law  of  poor  Marie  Antoinette's 
great  friend..  It  was  through  the  thick  of  the  French 
Revolution.  The  stand  for  the  flower-glass  is  made 
of  dried  and  twisted  vine  stalks  like  the  plaited 
palm-leaves  that  serve  for  fresh  palms  in  Rome  at 
Easter.  The  chest  is  old  English,  one  of  the  '  brides ' 


1-84  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

hutches '  in  which  brides  carried  off  their  wardrobes 
and  household  linen  long  ago." 

"  Why,  your  room  is  like  a  story — a  succession  of 
stories ! "  cried  Pie,  content  for  the  moment  to 
wander  about  and  examine  the  threads  of  the  differ- 
ent stories.  Harriet  lay  and  watched  her,  thought 
how  young  Pie  Stubbs  was  still,  in  spite  of  her 
alarming  amount  of  virtue  and  public-spirited  ness, 
and  wished  she  would  show  a  particular  penchant 
for  any  particular  article,  because  then  Harriet 
might  make  a  note  of  it  and  try  to  get  its  duplicate, 
in  order  to  give  it  to  Pie  on  her  birthday  or  at 
Christmas.  For  Harriet  was  nothing  if  she  was  not 
as  generous  as  the  day  in  what  did  not  cost  her 
much.  After  all,  Harriet  was  not  ungrateful  or  un- 
magnanimous,  and  it  had  not  entered  her  head  that 
the  acquaintance  withheld  from  her  so  long,  and  at 
last  forced  upon  her,  might  be  dropped  when  the  call 
for  friendliness  was  over — as  if  a  call  for  friendliness 
ever  could  be  over. 

Harriet  Cotton  continued  so  much  better  for 
"laying  herself  up,"  as  Dr.  Sanders  called  the  pro- 
cess, that  the  worthy  doctor  grew  very  hopeful 
about  her  again.  "  Nothing  much  amiss  with  tlut 
girl's  back,  as  I  thought  at  first.  Must  write  at 
once  and  relieve  her  poor  father's  mind.  Wish  to 


GJRL  NEIGHBORS.  185 

Heaven  I  had  never  troubled  it,  especially  as  he 
was  ill.  But  what  was  I  to  do,  with  all  the  blame 
to  fall  on  me  if  it  turned  out  she  was  seriously  hurt? 
Who  was  to  guess  that  a  man  of  his  age  would  take 
fever  ?  And  the  girl  might  have  done  herself  in- 
calculable mischief  if  she  had  persisted  for  any 
length  of  time  in  her  folly.  A  kind  of  high-bred 
pluck  and  strength  of  will  carried  her  through  so 
far,  but  it  could  not  have  lasted  forever,  and  it  was 
risky  to  the  last  degree.  There  is  the  evil  of  the 
absurd  ideas  of  independence  and  judging  for  them- 
selves which  are  so  rife  among  young  people  now- 
adays. Independent  fiddlesticks !  Every  girl 
should  be  in  leading-strings  to  her  mother  till  she 
is  married,  and  after  that  she  ought  to  be  in  lead- 
ing-strdngs  to  her  husband,  though  I  have  always 
steered  clear  of  such  a  ticklish  job.  "We  should  have 
a  safer  and  more  reasonable  world  if  these  rules 
were  attended  to." 

The  comparative  ease  of  mind  and  body  which 
Harriet  was  now  enjoying  naturally  did  a  good 
deal  to  improve  her  temper  and  render  her  more 
amiable.  When  Pie  came  up  in  the  afternoons  and 
left  Mrs.  Parry  at  entire  liberty  to  devote  herself 
to  her  baby,  the  girls  chatted  together,  as  girls  will 
chat  on  every  subject  under  the  sun,  compared  notes 


186  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

and  laid  plans  not  always  in  accord,  in  a  pleasant, 
well-nigh  affectionate  spirit. 

The  first  day  Harriet  was  sufficiently  recovered 
to  drive  out,  she  took  the  cottage  in  her  drive,  and 
would  not  hear  of  Mrs.  Stubbs  coming  to  the  door 
to  speak  with  her.  On  the  contrary,  Harriet  in- 
sisted on  alighting  and  walking  into  the  cottage 
parlor.  "  I  have  come  to  thank  you,  Mrs.  Stubbs," 
said  Harriet,  "  for  all  the  trouble  which  you  and 
Mr.  Stubbs  and  your  daughter  have  taken  on  my 
account,  for  which  I  have  made  so  poor  a  return. 
I  have  nothing  to  say  for  myself  except  that  I  was 
ill  and  unhappy,  and  so,  I  am  afraid,  full  of  peevish- 
ness and  perversity." 

"There  is  no  occasion  for  apologizing  to  me, 
Miss  Cotton,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  in  her  short,  sharp 
manner,  as  if  she  were  snapping  the  lock  of  a 
pistol,  "  nor,  when  it  comes  to  that,  for  thanking 
any  of  us.  It  is  very  little  that  we  can  do  for  each 
other  at  any  time,  and  that  little  we  owe  as  a  duty 
to  our  neighbor  whenever  it  is  really  wanted.  I 
hope  Mr.  Cotton  continues  better.  I  hear  you  are 
stronger.  I  trust — excuse  me  for  saying  so — that 
you  will  not  endanger  either  his  recovery  or  your 
own."  Mrs.  Stubbs  spoke  in  very  much  the  same 
strain  to  Harriet  Cotton  that  the  matron  would 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  187 

have  employed  in  speaking  to  Lydia  or  any  other 
young  person  of  Lydia's  degree,  when  a  rebuke  had 
to  be  administered  to  the  culprit  for  fretting  unne- 
cessarily about  a  sick  father  or  mother,  or  for  dis- 
obeying her  mistress'  or  her  parents'  orders  simply 
to  relieve  the  girl's  unbridled  feelings. 

"  Horrid,  dictatorial,  self-righteous  woman ! " 
Harriet  made  the  private  comment.  "  And  the 
room  is  like  Noah's  ark  without  the  animals." 
But  she  put  force  upon  herself  and  submitted  out- 
wardly to  the  implied  censure.  She  even  admitted, 
with  some  ingenuousness,  "  I  deserve  to  be  scolded, 
Mrs.  Stubbs ;  but  I  hope  you  have  not  too  bad  an 
opinion  of  me  to  suffer  you  to  let  Pie — Miss 
Stubbs — bear  me  company  still,  as  you  were  so 
good  as  to  offer  she  should,  when  you  took  com- 
passion on  Anne  and  me,  at  the  height  of  our  dis- 
tress. Now  that  my  father  and  I  are  both  getting 
better  I  trust  you  do  not  mean  to  forbid  your 
daughter  to  have  any  further  intercourse  with 
me." 

"  No,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  with  a  faint  smile,  "  not 
if  you  wish  it."  Taken,  like  the  typical  bull,  by  the 
horns,  she  could  not  refuse  to  give  her  consent.  "  I 
don't  imagine  it  will  do  either  of  you  much  harm, 
though  it  may  not  be  remarkably  profitable — girls' 
intercourse  rarely  is." 


188  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Then  1  may  take  it  for  granted  that  you  will 
allow  Pie  to  drive  over  with  me  and  Anne  to 
Springfield  to-  morrow.  I  wish  to  buy  a  piece  of 
work  at  the  fancy-shop  there.  I  am  not  a  worker, 
neither  is  Anne,  so  we  have  no  knowledge  of  our 
own  to  guide  us." 

"  I  advise  you  not  to  depend  on  Pie's  knowl- 
edge. However,  if  you  and  your  sister  care  to  take 
her,  and  she  cares  to  go,  she  may.  She  is  indebted 
to  you  for  the  expedition.  Only,  Miss  Cotton,  re- 
member driving  is  not  much  in  Pie's  way.  Be  so 
good  as  not  to  put  it  into  her  head  that  she  can- 
not walk  the  distance  when  it  is  necessary  in 
future." 

"  Horrid  woman ! "  Harriet  repeated  to  herself 
under  her  breath  as  she  drove  away. 

"  That  girl  is  much  too  ready  with  set  speeches 
when  it  suits  her,"  was  Mrs.  Stubbs'  counterblast 
when  Harriet  was  gone.  "  A  chit  like  that  to  know 
how  to  smooth  her  plumes,  when  she  finds  it  con- 
venient, to  a  woman  of  my  age !  I  thought  her 
rude  but  honester  in  her  good  breeding  when  I  was 
over  at  the  manor  house." 

Pie  did  wish  to  drive  to  Springfield.  She  was 
now  at  ease  with  Harriet,  in  addition  to  Har- 
riet's more  genial  humor  and  Mrs.  Parry's  good-will 


GIHL  NEIGHBORS.  189 

to  a  young  girl  who  had  the  sense  and  feeling  so 
well  to  appreciate  babies.  So  Pie  enjoyed  the  drive 
and  the  shopping  immensely,  and  made  both  much 
more  interesting  and  amusing  to  Mr.  Cotton's 
daughters  by  the  copious  information  and  explana- 
tions which  only  the  native  of  a  place  can  supply. 

Mrs.  Stubbs,  though  she  had  nothing  grudging  or 
mean  in  her  rasping,  bracing  nature,  was  a  little  dis- 
concerted by  Pie's  changing  her  colors,  and  openly 
expressing  her  satisfaction  with  a  whole  afternoon 
spent  in  such  company. 

"  I  am  afraid  it  is  a  bad  precedent,  Haderezer," 
the  lady  confided  to  her  husband  when  the  two  were 
alone  together.  k'  I  never  knew  Pie  fickle  or  caught 
bv  the  advantages  which  riches  can  command  be- 

»•  O 

fore.  But  she  is  young,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  luxurious  habits  are  attractive  to  the  young  and 
are  easily  picked  up.  This  is  the  very  thing  for 
which  I  wished  to  keep  her  away  from  these  people 
at  the  manor  house.  I  dreaded  lest  Pie  should  con- 
tract tastes  which  she  would  never  have  the  means 
of  gratifying.  In  that  case  she  will  lose  conceit  of 
all  she  has  cared  for  hitherto,  and  become  discon- 
tentented  with  her  lot  in  life." 

"  Never  is  a  long  word.  How  do  you  know  that 
Pie  may  not  live  to  marry  a  millionaire  ?  " 


100  GIRL  XBIGHBORS. 

"  I  am  serious,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  severely. 

"  I  am  not  aware  that  I  am  anything,  else.  Be- 
sides, Mrs.  Stubbs,  you  could  not  keep  away  from 
these  people  at  the  manor  house.  You  even  pressed 
me  into  the  service,  and  sent  me  trotting  to  town 

'  O 

after  news  of  old  Cotton.  But  wait  till  Pie  has 
grown  sulky  and  discontented — fancy  poor  little  Pie 
waxed  savage  under  a  sudden  consciousness  of  the 
woes  of  poor  gentility  ! — before  you  begin  to  lament 
over  her  and  yourself." 

"One  may  wait  too  long,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  gloom- 
ily. "  There  is  little  use  in  locking  the  stable  door 
after  the  steed  is  stolen." 

"  I  tell  you,  my  dear,  Pie  has  much  less  sense  and 
spirit  than  I  have  given  her  credit  for,  if  her  temper 
is  to  be  soured  and  her  peace  ruined  by  a  passing 
contact  with  rich  neighbors.  She  does  not  have 
enough  companions  of  her  own  standing,  and  she 
will  soon  grow  too  old-fashioned  for  those  she  has. 
She  is  better  to  mix  with  rich  as  well  as  poor  girls 
and  get  what  glimpse  she  can  of  the  world  all  round. 
You  have  not  scrupled  at  my  sending  Harry  first  to 
a  public  school  and  then  to  Oxford,  where,  for  any- 
thing that  you  or  I  know,  or  anything  we  should 
object  to  in  the  circumstances,  he  is  hob-nobbing 
with  the  son  of  a  duke  at  this  moment.  If  Harry 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS,  191 

can  do  it  with  impunity  left  to  himself  in  his  college 
why  cannot  Pie  under  your  own  eye  at  home  ? " 

"  Boys  are  different,"  was  Mrs.  Stubbs'  brief  de- 
fense of  her  inconsistency. 

"  I  protest  I  cannot  see  it,"  said  Haderezer  the 
elder.  "  I  have  always  had  unbounded  faith  in  the 
sensible  adage  that  what  is  sauce  for  the  goose  is 
sauce  for  the  gander,  and  vice  versa." 

The  sisters  were  sitting  together  in  the  drawing- 
room  at  the  manor  house,  where  Harriet  was  again 
able  to  take  her  place.  Pie  Stubbs  was  with  them. 
She  had  run  over  to  see  that  the  late  invalid  was  no 
worse  for  her  drive.  One  little  table  between  the 
three  bore  the  usual  dainty,  cozy  tea-equipage, 
another  table  close  at  hand  was  covered  with  strips 
of  velvet,  skeins  of  silk  of  the  latest  artistic  dyes, 
and  gold  thread  in  admired  confusion. 

"  I  am  not  a  worker,  above  all  at  needlework," 
said  Harriet,  as  if  there  was  merit  or  at  least  dis- 
tinction in  the  announcement ;  "  neither  is  Nanny 
there,  unless  at  babies'  boots  and  bibs." 

"  I  am  sure  I  wish  I  had  begun  earlier,"  lamented 
poor  Mrs.  Parry  disconsolately.  "  I  should  so  like 
to  embroider  a  beautiful,  jacket  for  darling  baby, 
like  that  I  was  told  Lady  Powell  had  embroidered 
for  her  little  son,  but  1  am  so  stupid  and  slow  at 
such  work  that  I  dare  not  attempt  it." 


192  GIRT.  NEIGHBORS. 

"  Don't,  Nanny,"  said  Harriet ;  "  depend  upon  it, 
he  would  be  in  tail-coats  before  you  had  finished." 

"  I  suppose  you  wish  to  do  some  pretty  amusing 
piece  of  work  while  you  are  still  not  able  to  go 
about  much,"  suggested  Pie  ;  "  but  this  is  rather  an 
ambitious  undertaking,"  she  added  doubtfully,  "  a 
great  deal  more  so  than  a  baby's  jacket." 

"  I  wish  it  to  be  ambitious,"  said  Harriet,  lazily 
leaning  back  in  her  chair.  "  I  mean  it  to  cost  time 
and  trouble,  and  I  am  not  going  to  do  it  for  my 
amusement — I  don't  believe  it  will  amuse  me  much  ;" 
with  a  shrag  of  her  shoulders.  "  If  it  were  not  for 
the  person  who  is  to  have  it,  it  would  rather  be  a  bit  of 
a  penance.  I  intend  it  for  a  border  to  the  table-cover 
in  my  father's  business-room." 

"  But  why  should  you  do  that,  Harry  ? "  remon- 
strated Mrs.  Parry.  "  It  will  never  be  seen  there. 
The  business-room  is  just  a  place  where  my  father 
can  speak  to  the  farm-bailiff,  or  the  servants,  or  any 
tradesman  who  is  about  the  house." 

"  My  father  will  see  it,  and  that  is  enough,"  said 
Harriet,  somewhat  loftily  for  the  occasion. 

"  And  does  he  care  for  grand  table  covers  ?  "  ex- 
claimed Pie,  in  surprise.  "  Yes,  I  understand ;  you 
mean  to  surprise  him,  and  lie  will  like  that.  But 
a  fine  table-cover  would  only  trouble  my  father,  and 


OlllL  NEIGHBORS.  193 

be  iii  hi s  way.  To  be  sure  Mr.  Cotton  may  not  be 
in  the  habit  of  covering  his  table  with  specimens  of 
sandy,  slaty  stones." 

"  I  don't  imagine  my  father  notices  cr  cares  what 
kind  of  table-cover  is  on  his  table,"  said  Harriet 
impatiently  ;  "  but  he  will  value  this  one  if  I  work 
it  for  him.  I  know  he  has  been  vexed,  though  I 
do  not  see  any  great  reason  why,  because  I  have 
not  been  fond  of  needlework.  Now  I  am  deter- 
mined to  do  what  Pie  Stubbs  here  calls  '  an  ambi- 
tious undertaking '  all  in  his  honor  and  to  gratify 
him." 

"  Ah,  that  is  nice  of  you ! "  said  Pie  half  under 
her  breath,  with  a  sparkle  in  her  kind  eyes,  while 
Mrs.  Parry  thought  them  both  a  little  odd  and 
quixotic. 

"And  you  are  to  teach  me,  Pie  Stubbs,"  pro- 
claimed Harriet  boldly.  "I  need  hardly  warn  you 
that  I  shall  be  a  troublesome  pupil." 

"  I  should  not  mind  that,"  said  Pie  in  some  dis- 
may ;  "  but  I  have  done  very  little  work  like  this. 
I  can  do  plain  work  tolerably,  only  tolerably,  my 
mother  says,  and  I  have  embroidered  a  few  things, 
mostly  for  Harry — slippers  and  smoking-caps — but 
not  in  such  expensive  materials.  It  would  be  a 
great  pity  to  waste  these  which  have  cost  so  much," 


1D4  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

said  Pie  with  commendable  prudence,  "  besides  they 
are  quite  lovely,  like  all  your  things !  And,  Miss 
Cotton,  I  suspect  you  do  not  guess  how  much  work 
you  are  imposing  upon  yourself  if  you  are  to  em- 
broider this  table-cover  soon.  It  might  even  be  bad 
for  your  health." 

"  Nonsense  ! "  cried  Harriet.  "  I  am  sure  that 
anything  which  occupies  me  and  takes  me  out  of 
myself  is  good  for  me.  People  have  been  preach- 
ing that  to  me  ever  since  I  was  born,  but,  somehow, 
they  have  never  been  able  to  make  ine  put  it  in 
practice.  Yet  I  can  do  it,  I  know  I  can.  You  have 
no  idea  what  I  can  do  when  I  set  my  mind  to  it. 
By  the  way,  Miss  Stubbs,  what  do  you  take  me  for  ? 
Do  you  mean  that  I  am  to  be  Miss  Cotton  to  you 
while  you  are  to  be  Pie  to  me — not  that  I  shall  ever 
again  so  far  forget  myself,  if  you  do  not  call  me 
Harriet  ? " 

It  was  true  that  Pie,  and  many  more  than  Pie, 
had  no  conception  of  what  Harriet  Cotton  could  do 
when  she  liked.  As  a  rule  she  had  not  before  con- 
centrated what  faculties  she  possessed  on  any  given 
object.  The  consequence  was  that  in  spite  of  more 
than  average  talents,  a  good  education,  and  many 
opportunities  for  improving  herself,  she  could 
hardly  do  anything — including  her  violin  playing — 
more  than  "  indifferently  well." 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  195 

But  when  she  set  about  working  her  father's 
table-cover  with  a  will  she  distanced  her  teacher  in 
no  time.  Difficulties  did  not  daunt  her,  or  drudgery 
disgust  her ;  even  bodily  weariness  failed  to  dissi- 
pate her  energy.  When  Dr.  Sanders  found  that 
she  did  not  use  a  frame  in  working,  and  could  even 
manage  sometimes  to  embroider  lying  on  her  back, 
he  made  no  objections,  which  was  a  great  relief  to 
Pie.  Every  time  she  went  over  to  the  manor  house 
she  could  not  rest  till  she  had  seen  how  far  Harriet 
had  advanced  since  she  was  there  last,  and  she  was 
always  amazed  at  the  progress  which  had  been 
made.  She  took  the  greatest  reflected  interest  and 
pleasure  in  so  beautiful  a  piece  of  work  growing 
under  her  eyes.  She  was  as  innocently  proud  of  it 
as  if  she  had  done  it  herself. 

Pie  was  deeply  impressed  by  Harriet's  steadfast- 
ness in  the  matter,  and  called  her  mother's  attention 
to  it. 

"  It  is  a  pity  she  does  not  turn  her  application  and 
perseverance — if  she  has  these  qualities ;  I  should 
not  have  thought  it — to  better  account,"  was  Mrs. 
Stubbs'  cautious  comment. 

The  two  girls  had  many  happy  meetings  and  con- 
sultations, and  always  more  intimate  relations  over 
the  table  cover,  till  Harriet  dwindled  into  "  Harry," 


106  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

and  Pie,  by  a  refinement  of  corruption,  lengthened 
into  "  Pigeon." 

The  couple  talked  often  of  another  Harry,  who,  at 
home  or  at  college,  bulked  largely  in  Pie's  life. 
Harriet  had  never  seen  him  except  in  a  series  of 
bird's-eye  peeps  like  those  she  had  been  wont  to  take 
at  Pie  from  the  imitation  ruined  tower. 

"I  could  have  dispensed  with  sisters,"  said  Har- 
riet, audaciously,  "even  married  sisters,  though  I 
do  not  intend  you  to  suppose,  Pie,  that  Laura  and 
Georgie  and  Anne  in  the  nursery  upstairs  are  not  all 
of  them  exemplary  characters — young  matrons  who 
have  been  only  too  attentive  to  their  younger  sister, 
and  disinterestedly  careful  of  her  manners  and 
morals — but  I  think  I  should  not  have  minded  hav- 
ing a  brother.  What  is  it  like  to  have  a  brother  ? " 

"  It  is  very  nice,"  said  Pie  heartily,  "  so  nice  that, 
do  you  know,  I  have  been  tempted  to  wish  it  still 
nicer  ?  If  it  feels  so  pleasant  to  have  a  brother  to 
tell  things  to,  with  whom  you  can  quarrel  and  agree 
again  without  scruple  or  fear,  who  teases  and  pets 
and  takes  care  of  you  when  he  is  at  home  once  a 
year  or  so,  what  would  it  not  be  to  have  a  sister 
always  with  you,  sharing  and  understanding  things, 
even  better  than  a  brother  ? " 

"My  sisters  all  went  off  and  got  married  before 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  197 

they  could  share  anything  better  worth  having  with 
me  than  boxes  of  chocolate  or  pug  puppies  and  Per- 
sian kittens.  When  I  come  to  think  of  it  I  believe 
Nanny  was  generous  enough  to  let  me  see  how  she 
put  up  her  hair  without  forbidding  me  to  do  mine  in 
the  same  fashion.  No,  I  cannot  say  that  I  regretted 
my  sisters'  marriages,  but  I  begin  to  see  that  it  is 
just  possible  I  have  missed  something  which  I  might 
have  learned  to  prize,"  owned  Harriet  with  a  little 
softening  in  her  face  and  voice  as  she  glanced  at  Pie. 
Then  she  began  again,  not  without  a  suspicion  of 
banter  in  her  tone,  "  Is  your  brother  very  good, 
like  you  ?  Does  he  teach  in  Sunday-schools  and 
hold  fathers'  meetings  and  visit  the  poor  ? " 

Pie  looked  inclined  to  laugh,  and  yet  showed 
herself  a  little  perplexed  and  a  little  hurt.  "No," 
she  said,  "boys  are  different  from  girls,"  uncon- 
sciously quoting  her  mother's  axiom.  "  If  you  had 
a  brother  you  would  understand  that.  Harry  is 
like  other  lads — more  frightened  for  being  accused 
of  cant  and  humbug  than  for  being  charged  with 
breaking  all  the  ten  commandments.  My  father 
says  that  lads  have  some  reason  for  this  abhorrence 
of  what  would  be  a  loud  profession  on  their  part, 
since  untruth  and  hypocrisy  are  the  most  de- 
structive and  hopeless  of  sins.  Besides,  Harry  is 


198  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

still  in  the  middle  of  his  education,  while  I  am 
understood  to  have  finished,  or  to  be  nearly  finish- 
ing mine.  It  is  his  part  to  learn,  not  to  teach,  at 
present.  But  you  must  not  think  for  a  moment 
that  he  is  not  a  dear,  good  fellow,  and  does  not 
wish  to  be  of  use  and  to  do  good  in  the  world.  If 
I  were  at  liberty  to  let  you  into  some  of  Harry's 
confidences,  you  would  recognize  that  he  has  some- 
thing in  him,  for  as  light-hearted  as  he  is.  Though 
he  affects  to  be  selfish  or  '  'cute,'  as  he  calls  it,  and 
to  have  no  great  opinion  of  anybody  or  anything, 
I  know  he  hopes,  with  God's  blessing,  to  help  in 
mending  the  world  some  day,"  ended  Pie  rev- 
erently. 

"  I  wish  you  had  not  grown  solemn  and  said 
that,"  complained  Harriet  discontentedly.  "  I  was 
just  beginning  to  trust  that  he  might  like  me  and 
that  I  should  like  him,  but  now  you  have  spoiled  it 
all.  If  he  is  to  think  of  mending  me  it  will  be  all 
over  with  our  friendship." 

"  It  is  you  who  are  altogether  mistaken,"  said 
Pie,  almost  indignantly,  "  if  you  have  taken  that 
into  your  head.  Harry  has  too  poor  an  opinion  of 
himself  to  think  of  improving  anybody  in  that 
sense.  It  will  be  by  mending  himself  that  he  will 
ever  do  anything  toward  mending  the  world." 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  199 

"  I  don't  understand,"  said  Harriet  doggedly. 

Some  time  before  Harry  Stubbs  came  home  for 
the  long  vacation  Mr.  Cotton  returned.  He  still 
looked  somewhat  white  and  shaken  in  his  former 
fresh-colored  portliness.  He  walked  straight  over 
to  the  cottage  and  asked  Lydia  to  show  him  into 
Mr.  Stubbs'  room.  "  I  may  be  an  intrusive  bore,  in 
which  case  you  must  turn  me  out  presently,"  he 
said  cheerfully,  "  but  in  the  meantime  I  must  say 
my  say.  It  is  that  I  cannot  live  a  day  at  the  manor 
house  without  thanking  all  you  good  people  at  the 
cottage  for  your  friendly  deeds  to  my  daughters, 
especially  to  my  poor  little  girl.  Why,  she  is  like 
another  creature  !  Please  tell  Mrs.  Stubbs  and  Miss 
Stubbs  that  I  can  never  forget  their  kindness. 
Now,  having  got  my  word  out  without  inter- 
ruption, a  privilege  for  which  I  have  again 
to  thank  you,  I'll  take  myself  off  if  you  like." 

Mr.  Stubbs  could  not  choose  to  adopt  such  a 
churlish  course;  so  the  visitor  remained  and  was 
taken  to  the  ladies'  part  of  the  house  and  formally 
presented  to  Mrs.  Stubbs  and  Pie,  to  whom  he  ex- 
pressed his  gratitude  a  second  time.  Xobody,  not 
even  Mrs.  Stubbs,  could  be  angry  with  him  or  re- 
gard him  as  an  unauthorized  intruder,  or  refuse  to 


200  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

say  that  they  were  glad  to  see  him  back  recovered 
from  his  dangerous  illness.  The  worst  that  the 
censor  of  the  house  said  of  him  was  that  he  was 
"phrasy,"  a  word  of  her  own  coining  representing  a 
modified  tendency  to  "  blarney." 

It  was  incumbent  on  Mr.  Stubbs  to  return  Mr. 
Cotton's  call.  The  visiting  terms  of  the  two  fami- 
lies were  regularly  established,  and  as  the  houses 
were  so  near  it  was  hardly  possible  to  keep  the  ac- 
quaintance slight,  and  the  intercourse  of  the  rare 
nature  of  angel's  dealings  with  men.  The  heads  of 
the  houses,  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Stubbs,  had  not  a 
great  deal  in  common ;  and  it  was  not  to  be  thought 
that  at  their  age  the  men's  natures  could  unbend  and 
incline  to  meet  each  other,  as  the  natures  of  girls 
similarly  circumstanced  would  do.  However, 
having  exchanged  armed  neutrality  fast  merging 
into  hostility  for  a  certain  amount  of  esteem,  the 
gentlemen  were  likely  enough  to  slip  gradually  into 
a  considerable  degree  of  cordiality  and  positive 
friendship. 

Before  this  desirable  change  in  the  relations  of 
the  manor  house  and  the  cottage  had  come  about, 
Harry  Stubbs  had  heard  many  particulars  of  the 
Cotton  family.  He  professed  to  be  mystified  and 
resentful  because  of  the  sliding-scale  according  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  201 

which  these  had  been  presented  to  him.  "  Hold  on, 
Pie  !  ain't  this  the  girl  you  wrote  about  as  a  spoiled 
fine  lady,  who  was  too  listless  even  to  knock  about 
the  tennis-balls,  after  turning  us  out  of  our  old 
ground  ?  I  say,  why  do  you  stand  up  for  her  now, 
liker  a  turkey-cock  than  any  of  your  sister  magpies  ? 
Is  it  because  she  is  as  rich  as  Miss  Kilmansegg,  with 
a  golden  back  instead  of  a  golden  leg?— didn't  I 
hear  something  of  her  back  being  broken  ?  Oh  fie, 
Pie,  to  be  bought  over  by  filthy  lucre ! " 

But  Harry  did  not  object  to  walk  across  with  Pie 
to  the  manor  house  and  witness  all  the  fine  new 
doings  there. 

Harry  was  an  enlarged  edition  of  Pie — a  greatly 
enlarged  edition,  for  he  was  a  gigantic  lad  in  the 
chaotic  state  of  mind  and  body  through  which  young 
giants  have  to  pass  before  they  emerge,  well-knit 
and  well-packed  in  every  limb  and  brain  cell. 

"  It  is  a  jolly  house,"  Harry  was  moved  to  say 
when  Pie  and  he  quitted  it ;  "  and  upon  my  word 
she  is  a  jolly  girl." 

Now  "  jolly "  was  about  the  last  word  which 
could  be  applied  correctly  to  a  high-art  house  or  a 
girl  like  Harriet  Cotton.  Poetic,  pensive,  perhaps  a 
trifle  lackadaisical,  would  be  nearer  the  mark  where 
many  of  the  present  fashions  in  furniture  are  con- 


202  OIHL  NEIGHBORS. 

cerned.  As  for  Harriet,  she  might  have  justly  been 
called  spirited,  self-possessed,  a  shade  domineering, 
more  than  a  shade  whimsical,  at  the  same  time  frank 
and  true  as  any  brother  would  like  to  find  his  sister  ; 
but  jolly  ? — no  !  The  vocabulary  of  a  young  man 
and  his  interpretation  of  it  are  often  wonderful  to 
uninitiated  ears. 

Harry's  presence  at  home  had  always  been  the 
signal  for  the  outbreak  of  the  greatest   gayety  of 
the  year   to   Pie — not   that   she   took    it    without 
qualms.     She  was,  as  her  father  said,  in  danger  of 
growing   too    old-fashioned,    and   of   molding    her 
life  on  sets  of  rules  and  restrictions — some  of  them 
obsolete  in  the  letter,  though,  let  us  be  thankful, 
still  alive  in  the  spirit.     Pie  was  liable  to  magnify 
the  importance  of  her  various  missions,  or  rather  of 
her  share  in  them,  in  the   Sunday-school  and  night 
school,  the  mothers'  meeting,  and  the  cottage  hospi 
tal,  and  in  what  was  her  sole   concern,  her  junior 
secretaryships.     There  was  some  danger  of  her  be- 
coming a  prig   and   a   prude.     It  was  a  transition 
period  with  Pie  no  less  than  with  Harriet.     As  the 
old  Jews  burned   incense  to  their  nets  and  drags, 
Pie  was  tempted  to  offer  up  sacrifices  to  her  "  duties  " 
— sacrifices  of  other  people's  comfort  and  enjoy- 
ment as  well  as  her  own.    There  was  an  ominous 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  203 

probability  of  her  getting  to  take  the  sacrifice  of  her 
inclinations  as  the  great  test  of  whether  she  ought 
to  do  this  or  that  act,  or  to  refrain  from  doing  it. 
At  this  time  the  chief  antidote  to  the  tendency  in 
Pie,  after  her  mother's  cutting  common-sense  com- 
mentaries and  her  father's  sly  hits  and  cross  protests, 
was  Harry's  periodical  rousing  arrivals,  with  their  sea- 
sons of  relaxation  from  all  effort,  while  she  ran 
about  with  him.  He  pulled  her  down  from  her  ped- 
estal, as  he  defined  the  operation,  and  laughed  at 
her,  while  he  trusted  her  and  secretly  reverenced 
her,  as  the  power  of  reverencing  mother  or  sister  is 
the  greatest  earthly  blessing  and  safeguard  a  young 
man  can  possess. 

Harriet  Cotton,  now  that  she  was  quite  well  again, 
came  in  for  her  share  in  the  small  neighborly  fes- 
tivities which  Harry  Stubbs'  appearance  at  the 
cottage  inaugurated.  The  encounters  of  the  two 
families  in  company  had  not  only  ceased  to  have 
their  old  freezing  effect  both  on  themselves  and  the 
circles  in  which  they  moved,  the  meetings  were 
hailed  as  welcome  incidents — nay,  they  came  to  be  de- 
liberately preconcerted  and  arranged  for  in  the  most 
free-and-easy  way.  "  If  you  and  your  brother  are 
going  to  Woodleigh,  Pie,"  Harriet  Cotton  would 
say,  "  I  think  I  shall  pay  a  call  I  am  owing  to  the 


204  GIRL  NKIGUBOR8. 

Gordons  this  afternoon  ;  and  perhaps  they  will  give 
me  an  invitation.  We  can  go  and  come  together, 
which  will  be  charming,  and  will  save  Mr.  Stubbs 
from  hiring,  since  I'll  have  the  carriage.  I  don't 
want  to  lose  both  of  you  ;  and  it  will  be  a  splendid 
chance  for  me  to  exhibit  the  improvement  on  my 
tennis-playing." 

"  How  do  you  do,  Miss  Cotton  ? "  Harry  would 
say.  "I  am  getting  a  mount  from  Dick  Townsend 
before  luncheon.  Have  I  your  leave  to  tell  his  sis- 
ters th  at  you  will  walk  over  with  Pie  and  me  on 
Wednesday  to  see  the  Market-Lewis  rose  and  poul- 
try show  and  '  drop  in' — is  that  the  neatest  way  to 
put  it? — on  the  Townsends  for  a  cup  of  tea  or  a 
glass  of  milk  and  soda  in  this  hot  weather?" 

In  the  extreme  change  in  the  relations  between 
the  manor  house  and  the  cottage,  the  second  year  af- 
ter the  Cottons  came  to  Maidsmeadows,  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
though  she  might  be  said  to  have  begun  it,  did 
what  she  could  without  effect  to  stop  the  increasing 
power  of  the  affinity  between  the  young  people, 
which  made  them  fly  more  and  more  to  each  other, 
and  do  everything  together. 

Those  narrow  walks  and-chvarfed  bridges  of  poor 
old  Squire  Fuller's  were  once  more  in  full  operation 
in  a  manner  which  would  have  gladdened  him  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  205 

see.  Mr.  Cotton  was  always  glad  to  see  Harry,  and 
enjoyed  the  lad's  youthful  bouyancy  and  manliness  ; 
while  in  Harry's  eyes,  Harriet  Cotton  was  a  jolly 
beauty  of  a  girl  for  a  friend,  not  a  sister.  She  was 
the  first  girl  friend,  except  Pie,  he  had  ever  pos- 
sessed, and  he  found  that  though  a  sister  is  an  ex- 
cellent institution  of  her  kind,  there  is  a  little  to  be 
said  also  for  somebody  else  as  a  change.  Harry 
took  the  various  avenues  to  the  manor  house  at  all 
points  in  a  series  of  runs  and  flying  leaps  whenever 
the  impulse  seized  him.  It  did  not  seem  to  matter 
that  in  the  immature  size  which  he  did  not  know 
how  to  carry,  one  was  tempted  to  think  that  he 
would  fill  the  genteelly  slender  paths  and  cause  the 
planks  to  groan  under  him  till  he  broke  the  bushes 
on  either  side  and  cracked  the  wood,  as  the  squire 
had  split  the  deal  with  the  heel  of  his  boot  in  hurry- 
ing to  the  assistance  of  poor  Miss  Mary. 

When  the  two  girls  had  nothing  else  to  do,  after 
they  had  exhausted  all  their  other  modes  of  inter- 
course they  would  betake  themselves  to  the  twin 
bowers  in  the  middle  of  the  biggest  bridge,  and  find 
a  mysterious  pleasure  in  whispering  to  each  other 
through  the  twigs.  Harry  caught  them  at  it  more 
than  once  and  bombarded  them  with  his  big  boy's 
raillery. 


206  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTEK  XL 

ISOLATION. 

"  PIE-CRUST,  we  want  you  to  go  with  us  and  get 
some  water-lilies  from  the  Nunn."  The  speaker  was 
Harry  Stubbs,  in  boating  flannels  and  a  straw  hat, 
and  be  brandished  a  green  bough  which  he  had  just 
broken  off  in  his  impetuous  progress,  and  presently 
used  it  to  tickle  Pie  in  the  nape  of  the  neck  as  she 
sat  before  a  pile  of  decidedly  untidy-looking  account- 
books  at  her  particular  side-table  in  the  Stubbs' 
parlor. 

"  Don't,  Harry  ! "  objected  Pie,  with  more  irrita- 
bility than  was  common  with  her.  Either  the  con- 
tact with  the  bough  was  specially  exasperating,  or 
she  had  been  overworking  herself  in  a  desperate 
attempt  to  make  various  strikingly  inconsistent  col- 
umns of  figures  agree.  "  Who  are  going  ? "  she 
asked,  in  slightly  rebuking  accents. 

u  Why,  Harry  Cotton  and  I,  to  be  sure.  Did  you 
think  the  old  fogies  would  dream  of  going  in  search 
of  water-lilies  ? " 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  207 

"  Harry,  you  ought  not  to  call  your  father  and 
mother — not  to  say  Mr.  Cotton — '  old  fogies.'  And 
who  gave  you  leave  to  say  '  Harry  Cotton  ? '  It  is 
too  far  for  Harriet  and  me  to  walk  before  we  get  to 
Kunnpool,  and  when  we  reach  it  we  may  find  the 
boat  engaged.  Harriet  is  not  aware  of  the  distance. 
She  is  not  strong  enough  for  a  walk  that 
would  tire  me.  You  ought  not  to  propose  it  to 
her." 

"  Pie-crust,"  said  Harry  Stubbs,  reflectively,  "  I 
am  certain  I  said  Pie-crust,  and  not  crusty  Pie. 
Harry  Cotton  knows  the  distance  perfectly  well. 
She  has  ridden  and  driven  by  Nunnpool  many  a 
time  and  oft.  I  say,  are  you  coming,  you  great 
arithmetician  ? " 

"  No,  Harry,  I  can't.  These  are  the  different 
books  of  the  juvenile  collectors  for  the  Cripples' 
Home.  The  collectors  have  not  made  them  up  cor- 
rectly— it  could  hardly  be  expected,"  moralized 
Pie  with  a  deep  sigh  ;  "  and  I  promised  to  set 
the  sums  right  before  the  books  are  given  to  the 
vicar  at  the  meeting  to-morrow.  Will  you  not  help 
me?" 

"  What !  in  broad  daylight  and  strong  sunshine, 
you  unreasonable  object !  Pie,  you're  getting  like 
the  child  who  asked,  '  Auntie,  ain't  I  good  enough 


208  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

to  be  put  into  a  tract  ? '  I'll  do  it  to-night  if  you 
like — not  the  putting  you  into  a  tract,  but  the 
balancing  business.  I'll  take  it  like  a  sleeping 
draught  before  I  seek  my  couch." 

"No,  that  will  not  do,"  said  Pie,  discontentedly  ; 
"  I  could  not  trust  you,  lest  you  should  forget  all 
about  it.  I  cannot  spare  the  time  myself  this  even- 
ing, for  I  have  promised  May  Mummery  to  take  the 
harmonium  at  the  choir  practice." 

"  I  suppose  there  is  a  kind  of  diseased  pleasure  in 
making  yourself  a  cart-horse  and  a  beast  of  burden,'' 
said  Harry  with  a  groan  ;  "  for  there  is  no  need  in 
this  case.  I  am  sure  the  mother  will  take  the  har- 
monium if  you  ask  her." 

"  I  shall  not  ask  her,"  persisted  Pie.  "  You  for- 
get how  bad  it  is  for  her  rheumatism  to  be  out  in 
such  heavy  dews  as  we  have  at  this  time  of  the  year. 
Besides,  she  has  enough  to  do  with  her  own  engage- 
ments ;  she  ought  not  to  be  burdened  vrith  mine 
also." 

"  Then  let  May  Mummery  get  some  other  body 
to  do  her  fagging,  and  be  hanged ' 

"Harry!" 

"  Well,  I  was  only  going  to  say,  what  business  has 
she  to  undertake  a  hurdy-gurdy  or  a  harmonium 
and  then  transfer  the  obligation  to  your  shoulders  ? 


OTRL  NEIGHBORS.  209 

I  should  like  to  see  any  man  in  Trinity  behave  like 
that  to  another  man." 

"  You  know  nothing  about  it.  I  have  offered  to 
be  her  substitute  on  the  few  occasions  when  she 
has  not  been  able  to  be  present." 

"  Oh,  yes  !  "  cried  Harry,  "  I  know  your  tricks, 
and  if  you  can  play  them  at  all,  you  might  also 
manage  to  play  them  by  proxy  sometimes,  won't 
you,  now,  just  to  oblige  me,  Pie?"  he  said,  coax- 


"  No,"  said  Pie,  still  obdurate  ;  "  it  would  not  be 
right." 

"  Right  !  "  repeated  Harry,  getting  angry. 
"Don't  disgrace  the  words  right  and  wrong  by 
dragging  them  into  such  a  paltry  transaction.  You 
know  well  enough  there  is  neither  right  nor  wrong 
in  such  a  trifle  as  your  providing  some  one  else  to 
play  for  you  at  the  choir  practice  to-night,  or  in 
your  leaving  these  beastly  little  books  alone  till  I 
can  look  at  them.  Why  will  you  be  such  a  donkey, 
Pie  ?  "  and  Harry  Stubbs  flung  out  of  the  room. 

"  It  is  going  to  be  a  thunder-s'orm,"  Pie  called 
after  him.  But  Harry  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  dis- 
agreeable suggestion,  as  if  Pie  had  no  right  to 
mention  thunder-storms  after  she  had  been  so 
obstinate  and  disobliging. 


210  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Pie  had  a  perception  that  there  was  something — 
there  was  a  good  deal,  in  what  her  brother  had 
been  telling  her.  She  was  making  a  mountain  out 
of  a  mole-hill.  She  was  exaggerating  what  was 
incumbent  upon  her.  She  was  out  of  temper,  and 
therefore  disposed  to  be  twice  as  self-important  and 
intractable  as  on  other  occasions. 

These  disagreeable  facts  came  still  more  home  to 
Pie  when  she  had  incidental  confirmation  of  her 
fears  that  the  two  Harrys  had  started  for  Nunnpool 
without  her.  She  had  to  struggle  more  and  more 
against  a  double  sense  of  wrong-doing  and  repent- 
ance. She  knew  that  though  Harriet  Cotton  was 
hardly  grown  up,  it  was  not  desirable  or  fit  for  her  to 
be  walking  and  rowing  for  a  whole  morning  with  no 
companion  save  a  lad  of  Harry's  age  who  was  not  her 
near  relation.  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mrs.  Stubbs,  who  had 
unfortunately  both  been  out  of  the  way  when  the  pair 
started  without  waiting  to  announce  their  intention 
at  headquarters,  would  neither  of  them  like  it. 

Harry  Stubbs  might  be  thoughtless  and  hot-headed 
and  Harry  Cotton  willful  and  defiant,  but  that  was 
the  greater  reason  why  the  sister  of  the  one  and  the 
friend  of  the  other  should  not  have  failed  them  when 
they  wanted  her.  Pie  had  been  unkind  to  the  one 
Harry,  and  untrue  to  the  other,  and  disagreeable  all 
round. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  211 

Pie  was  perfectly  miserable  when  a  thunder-storm 
did  come  on.  She  could  imagine  the  rash  couple 
caught  and  drenched  by  the  thunder-showers,  per- 
haps Harriet  Cotton  made  ill,  and  both  of  the  cul- 
prits detained  till  their  friends  were  in  alarm  about 
them.  And  it  happened  very  nearly  as  Pie  had  fore- 
boded. The  two  ardent  admirers  of  water  lilies  had 
been  overtaken  by  the  storm,  and  compelled  to  take 
refuge  in  more  than  one  cottage  before  they  reached 
the  river  and  the  boat-house.  There  they  had  found 
the  boat  which  was  to  be  hired  out  for  the  pool,  in 
the  act  of  fulfilling  a  previous  engagement.  Before 
the  boat  could  return,  its  would-be  passengers  had 
been  obliged  to  renounce  all  idea  of  the  bait  which 
had  lured  them  on  the  expedition,  and  to  make  their 
rnoist  and  muddy  way  homeward. 

After  all,  the  penance  seemed  light  enough.  Mr. 
Cotton  for  the  moment  was  too  glad  to  see  his 
daughter  back  without  accident,  to  do  more  than 
give  her  and  her  escort  a  mild  scolding  for  their  im- 
prudence. Harry  Stubbs  was  too  well  accustomed 
to  his  mother's  sharp  words  to  be  much  hurt  by  them, 
while  his  father  did  not  see  himself  called  on  to 
interfere. 

Harry  Stubbs  was  at  the  age  to  be  somewhat 
foolishly  elated  by  the  idea  that  he  had  got  into  a 


212  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

scrape  with  a  girl  who  was  not  Pie.  A  "  stunning 
girl,"  who  did  not  mind  a  bit  the  scrape  and  the  get- 
ting wet  and  tired,  if  he  were  to  tell  the  .whole 
truth,  terribly 'tired,  so  that  he  had  been  nearly 
frightened  out  of  his  wits  before  he  had  got  her 
home.  But  Harriet  Cotton  in  her  delicate  beauty 
was  as  plucky  as  any  fellow  he  knew,  and  after  the 
affair  was  over,  she  looked  upon  it,  as  he  did,  in  the 
light  of  an  adventure  to  be  boasted  of  rather  than 
blushed  for.  In  short,  the  two  offenders,  with  u 
mixture  of  fearless  innocence  and  hardihood,  made 
capital  of  the  pulpy  condition  to  which  Harriet's 
thin  boots  had  been  reduced,  and  the  frantic  efforts 
Harry  Stubbs  had  made  to  keep  the  rain  out  of  her 
face  by  fastening  his  handkerchief  to  his  stick,  and 
holding  it  flying  like  a  flag  before  her. 

On  the  whole,  perhaps  it  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  the  Harrys  were  magnanimous,  and  freely 
forgave  Pie  when  she  showed  proper  contrition  for 
her  fault  in  abandoning  them  to  their  own  devices. 

About  a  fortnight  after  the  walk  to  Xunnpool 
one  day  Harry  Stubbs  had  to  own  to  such  a  racking 
headache  that  he  was  reduced  to  taking  refuge  on 
the  parlor  sofa.  Pie,  and  even  his  mother,  were 
powerless  to  relieve  him.  After  a  second  day's  un- 
abated misery  Dr.  Sanders  was  called  in.  He  did 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  213 

not  look  grave  so  long  as  he  was  in  the  room  with 
his  patient,  but  the  instant  he  was  outside  the  bed- 
room door  he  said,  "  Why,  here  is  a  pretty  kettle  of 
fish !  Mrs.  Stubbs,  Harry  has  got  small-pox." 

Mrs.  Stubbs  was  equal  to  this  or  any  other  emer- 
gency, as  the  doctor  knew,  or  probably  he  would  not 
have  spoken  so  abruptly.  Her  first  thought  was 
clearly  for  Harry.  "  Is  he  likely  to  have  it  badly  ? " 
she  asked,  with  a  little  tremble  of  the  lip. 

"  I  should  say  smartly  ;  but,  bless  you,  there's 
scarcely  a  feather's  weight  of  danger  for  an  honest, 
healthy  lad  of  his  habits.  Considering  his  sex,  we 
may  let  his  beauty  take  its  chance.  What  we  have 
to  think  of  is  the  risk  of  communicating  the  disease 
to  other  people.  I  must  set  about  re  vaccinating  the 
whole  household." 

"  I  shall  nurse  Harry  myself,"  said  Harry's  mother 
promptly,  "  and  keep  Pie  and  Mr.  Stubbs  as  much 
out  of  the  way  as  possible.  Is  the  epidemic  in  the 
village  ?  I  have  not  heard  of  it." 

"  Nor  I  ;  but  there  are  cases  a  mile  or  two 
off." 

"  All  intercourse  with  the  manor  house  must  be 
forbidden,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs,  not  without  a  certain 
grim  satisfaction. 

"  Quite  right !     By  the  way,  I  have  a  note  bid- 


214  GIRL  NKIOHBOR8. 

ding  me  look  in  here  this  morning.  Know  what  is 
wrong  ?  No.  Well,  I  shall  soon  see.  Oh,  I  shall 
take  care  to  do  no  mischief.  Doctors  like  heralds, 
are  priviliged  persons." 

A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  Dr.  Sanders  took 
the  cottage  in  passing  as  he  had  done  on  a  pre- 
vious occasion.  He  was  impelled  to  tell  his 
striking  news  while  he  had  a  perplexed  expres- 
sion. "  I  say,  Miss  Cotton  has  got  small-pox 
also  !  Where  could  the  two  have  caught  it  simul- 
taneously ?  Anything  wrong  with  your  drains 
here?" 

Pie  was  present  when  Dr.  Sanders  put  the 
question.  She  had  just  been  told  the  nature  of  her 
brother's  illness,  and  was  struggling  between  grief 
and  anxiety  for  Harry  and  smothered  rebellion 
against  the  decree  that  she  was  not  to  come  within 
the  passage  that  led  to  his  bedroom.  As  to  horror 
of  the  complaint  in  the  light  of  a  repulsive  disease 
and  fear  of  its  affecting  herself,  she  might  have  en- 
tertained the  sentiments  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 
had  a  stranger  and  not  Harry  been  the  patient. 
But  now  concern  for  him  swallowed  up  any 
apprehension  for  herself.  *'  Harriet  too,"  she 
lamented  ;  "  and  she  and  dear  Harry  took  the  disease 
together."  Then  her  faltering  tongue  managed  to 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  215 

say  in  answer  to  the  doctor's  question,  "  That  day 
at  Nunnpool." 

Dr.  Sanders  accepted  the  solution  without  stop- 
ping to  ask  what  the  victims  had  to  do  with  Nunn- 
pool. 

"  Yes,  there  are  cases  at  Nunnpool." 

When  Harry  could  be  asked  he  told  one  part  of 
their  adventures  which  neither  he  nor  Harriet  Cot- 
ton had  thought  worth  retailing  before.  From  a 
cottage  door  in  which  they  had  taken  shelter  from 
the  storm,  they  had  seen  a  sick  man,  wrapped  in  a 
blanket,  in  the  act  of  being  taken  to  a  cart,  in  order 
to  be  conveyed  to  a  poor-house  infirmary.  To  Har- 
ry's disgust  there  had  been  an  apparent  reluctance 
among  the  by-standers  watching  the  poor  man's 
departure  to  come  near  and  help  him.  Harry  had 
stepped  forward  and  aided  the  invalid  in  getting 
into  the  cart.  He  had  been  a  s%iall-pox  patient,  and 
the  course  of  the  contagion  was  tolerably  plain. 

"  If  I  had  gone  with  them,"  Pie  said  aloud  in  lam- 
entable tones  the  moment  Dr.  Sanders  left,  "every- 
thing might  have  been  prevented.  I  might  have 
persuaded  them  to  turn  back  long  before.  I 
might  have  stopped  Harry  from  touching  the  man." 

"  Somebody  else  must  have  touched  him,"  said 
Mrs.  Stubbs,  with  a  flash  as  of  steel  in  her  eyes,  and 


216  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

then  a  swift  dimming  of  them.  "Don't  be  a  fool, 
Pie,  talking  as  if  you  were  a  small  Providence. 
Let  the  great  Providence  ordain  for  us  all,  making 
use  of  our  very  errors  and  mistakes.  It  is  the  sim- 
plest and  most  becoming  plan." 

"But  what  is  to  be  done  about  that  little  girl  of 
Cotton's  ?  "  Mr.  Stubbs  broke  in. 

"  Little  girl !  She  is  taller  than  I,"  snapped  Mrs. 
Stubbs. 

"  That  big  girl,  then,  Mrs.  Stubbs.  The  matter  is 
too  serious  to  admit  of  us  falling  out  about  a  word,'' 
remonstrated  Mr.  Stubbs.  "  It  seems  certain  Harry 
got  her  into  this  mess.  If  her  life  is  the  forfeit,  or 
even  her  beauty  spoiled,  what  will  Cotton  say  to 
it?" 

"  He  must  submit  like  other  people." 

"  That  goes  without  saying.  Does  anybody  know 
whether  as  yet  slid*  has  the  disease  severely  or 
slightly?" 

"  Slightly,"  answered  Pie,  repressing  a  sob.  "  I 
have  just  run  after  Dr.  Sanders  to  inquire,  and  he 
says  slightly,  but  she  is  a  delicate  girl,  and  wants 
careful  nursing." 

"  Who  is  to  nurse  her  ? "  went  on  Mr.  Stubbs. 

"How  can  we  tell?"  protested  Mrs.  Stubba 
"  Perhaps  one  of  her  sisters  will  come,  or  Dr.  San- 
ders will  tell  her  father  where  to  get  a  nurse." 


GIliL  NEIGHBORS.  217 

"  Cotton  cannot  summon  any  of  her  sisters.  It 
would  not  be  fair  to  their  husbands  and  children. 
Sanders  has  not  good  nurses — whom  he  knows  and 
can  trust — at  his  finger-ends,  to  be  heard  of  at  a 
moment's  notice,  though,  I  daresay,  he  can  procure 
a  nurse  of  some  sort,  or  send  to  town  for  "the 
article." 

"  There  is  Mrs.  Walls,  the  old  housekeeper,"  sug- 
gested Mrs.  Stubbs,  faintly  for  her. 

"  A  stupid,  timid  goose  of  an  ignorant  old  woman,  as 
I  have  often  heard  you  say,  though  faithful  enough, 
no  doubt.  But  in  all  probability  she  is  as  useless 
with  terror  and  distress  as  people  like  her  usually 
are  in  a  difficulty.  She  might  be  all  very  well  with 
even  a  young  head  like  that  of  her  mistress  to  di- 
rect and  control  her.  Without  it — well,  she  is  a 
body  without  a  head."  Mr.  Stubbs  dismissed  the 
suggestion  with  a  wave  of  one  gaunt  arm. 

There  was  a  moment's  pause. 

"  Pie,"  said  her  mother  in  a  peculiar  tone,  unlike 
her  natural  voice,  "  go  into  the  kitchen  and  ask  cook 
wiiat  milk  she  has  in  the  house,  then  take  the  jug 
to  the  first  landing  and  wait  for  me  there.  I  ex- 
pect that  girl  Lydia  will  be  scared  out  of  her  wits." 

When  the  door  closed  on  Pie,  husband  and  wife 
looked  at  each  other. 


218  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"You  heard  what  the  doctor  said,  Sapientia, 
about  the  slight  danger  in  small-pox  to  young  people 
who  have  never  broken  the  laws  of  temperance  and 
cleanliness — in  fact,  to  whom  they  are  as  natural  as 
the  air  they  breathe. 

"I  heard." 

"  A  bad  cold  would  very  likely  contain  more  ele- 
ments of  danger  to  th«m,  yet  who  fears  to  let  them 
run  the  risk  of  a  cold  ? " 

She  was  silent.  At  last  she  said,  "  If  it 
had  not  been  for  the  trouble  here,  with  Harry 
lying  ill,  I  should  have  gone  over  and  nursed  her 
myself." 

"  I  know  you  would,"  he  answered  quickly,  "  and 
I  hope  you  do  me  the  justice  to  consider  what  it 
would  cost  me  to  let  you  go.  But  it  comes  to  this, 
my  dear,  either  you  must  go  over  to  the  manor 
house  and  leave  Pie  and  me  to  nurse  Harry — I 
would  gladly  undertake  the  whole  of  the  business, 
but  I  don't  think  you  would  trust  me,  even  with 
cook  to  fall  back  upon — or  you  must  send  Pie  to  be 
with  Cotton's  daughter.  Pie  has  sense  beyond  her 
years,  though  I  say  that  it  should  not.  She  will  not 
fall  into  a  panic.  She  is  capable,  especially  if  the 
case  is  slight,  of  carrying  out  the  doctor's  orders. 
Cotton  will  look  after  her,  and  see  that  all  which 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  219 

can  be  done  is  managed  for  her.  You  heard  what 
Sanders  said  about  re-vaccination.  He  will  see  to 
that,  and  will  take  every  other  precaution  for  her 
safety." 

"  Haderezer,  are  you  dreaming  ?  are  you  mad  ? " 
gasped  Mrs.  Stubbs  from  where  she  had  been  sitting 
like  stone.  "  You  would  have  me  leave  my  boy  or 
send  Pie  over  to  the  manor  house  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Stubbs. 

"  You  would  have  me  send  our  girl — our  one  girl 
—Haderezer,  perhaps  to  take  the  disease  and  die, 
perhaps  to  live  and  be  cruelly  disfigured — and  you 
don't  know  what  that  means  to  a  woman  ?  " 

"  I  thought  you  were  wise,  Mrs.  Stubbs.  You  are 
as  bad  as  you  said  Lydia  would  be,  though  it  is  for 
your  children  and  not  for  yourself.  Small-pox  is 
disagreeable  enough,  doubtless,  but  it  is  no  longer 
the  scourge  it  was  in  the  middle  ages.  It  is  not 
leprosy,  or  the  plague,  or  even  yellow  fever  or 
cholera.  You  heard  what  the  doctor  said.  Pie 
runs  a  certain  risk  already,  living  in  the  house  with 
Harry,  which  cannot  be  avoided,  though  it  may  be 
minimized.  Ask  her  what  she  thinks.  If  she 
shrinks  from  incurring  more  risk,  then  don't  expose 
her  to  it — I  for  one  should  be  the  last  to  do  so — 
only  I  would  rather  see  her  disfigured  in  her  body 


220  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

than  in  her  soul,  that  is  all."  He  turned  upon  his 
heel,  but  only  took  a  few  steps,  and  came  back 
again.  "  If  I  am  not  mistaken,"  he  said  softly, 
"  our  Pie  will  elect  either  to  nurse  her  brother  or 
the  girl  she  has  been  making  such  friends  with 
lately,  whom  poor  Harry  has  got  into  this  hobble." 

It  was  so.  Pie  did  not  hesitate  for  an  instant. 
In  fact,  it  was  a  relief  to  her  to  be  allowed  to  share 
what  danger  there  was.  She  was  not  in  the  least 
frightened  or  nervous.  She  recovered  her  spirits  so 
far  as  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of  being  vaccinated  over 
again  like  a  baby,  while  she  obeyed  the  doctor. 
She  was  willing  either  to  stay  with  Harry  or  lo  go 
to  the  other  Harry.  Eventually  it  was  decided  that 
she  should  go  over  to  the  manor  house,  because 
Harriet  Cotton  was  not  nearly  so  ill  as  Harry 
Stubbs  was,  whatever  the  consequences  might  be  to 
her.  Besides,  at  the  manor  house  a  young  amateur 
nurse  would  not  only  have  Mrs.  Walls  at  her  elbow, 
she  would  have  the  assistance,  on  all  hands,  of  the 
numerous  well-trained  servants  and  the  ample 
resources  of  a  rich  man's  establishment. 

Mr.  Cotton  made  a  feeble  objection  to  the  arrange- 
ment, but  he  was  so  put  about  by  his  daughter's  ill- 
ness and  its  nature,  which  would  not  allow  him  to 
summon  her  sisters,  that  he  was  ready  to  clutch  at 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  221 

the  first  straw  of  comfort.  lie  hoped  his  poor 
Harry  would  not  want  much  nursing.  He  was 
ready  to  do  all  he  could,  to  sit  up  every  night  if  it 
were  necessary,  but  a  sick  girl  should  have  women 
about  her — a  girl  like  herself,  a  nice  sensible  girl 
such  as  Miss  Stubbs  was,  coming  and  staying  in  the 
house  (he  would  never  forget  the  courageous  unsel- 
fish kindness  both  of  her  and  her  parents)  would 
make  it  so  much  less  dreary  and  alarming  for  Harry. 
Of  course  he  would  not  have  suffered  it  if  the  elder 
Stubbses  themselves  had  not  proposed  it ;  and  cer- 
tainly there  was  something  to  be  said  for  their 
Harry,  who  was  bearing  his  punishment,  poor  lad, 
having  led  his  Harry  into  the  mischief.  Then  they 
were  all  so  near  that,  if  Pie  Stubbs  showed  the 
slightest  symptom  of  illness,  she  could  be  taken 
home  without  loss  of  time,  or  fear  of  injury. 

Dr.  Sanders  found  no  fault  with  the  additional 
exposure  for  Pie,  and  did  not  appear  to  think  her 
unfit  for  the  task  she  had  undertaken.  He  was  too 
well  accustomed  to  serious  illness  in  all  forms,  and 
to  the  vexed  questions  of  contagion  and  infection,  to 
be  easily  startled.  In  place  of  seeking  to  deter  Pie, 
he  called  her  "  a  good  little  girl,"  said  he  should  have 
both  his  patients  better  in  no  time,  and  promised 
that  if  his  new  nurse  did  him  credit  he  would  pro- 


222  GIRL  NEIGHBOHS. 

pose  her  for  the  first  opening  in  the  cottage  hospital 
or  the  workhouse  infirmary. 

In  the  meantime  the  two  young  patients  were 
tossing  more  or  less  uneasily  on  their  pillows  in  the 
cottage  and  the  manor  house. 

At  the  cottage  Harry  was  pressing  his  mother, 
who  had  not  thought  it  advisable  to  conceal  from 
him  that  Harriet  Cotton  had  also  been  attacked  by 
small  pox,  for  news  of  his  fello \v-sufferer,  and  for 
assurances  that  she  would  not  be  a  painful  object  to 
look  upon  for  the  rest  of  her  days. 

"  Don't  say  she  will  be  pitted  all  over !  "  he  cried 
feverishly.  "  It  does  not  signify  for  a  man — a  great 
hulking  fellow  like  me,  though  I  were  as  marked  as 
the  blind  fiddler  fellow  who  used  to  come  to  Maids- 
meadows,  but  I  can't  bear  that  her  beauty  should 
be  gone  forever  by  my  doing.  Tell  Pie,  in  case  she 
does  not  remember,  that  the  front  window  in  this 
room  just  takes  in  the  window  of  her  dressing  room, 
and  that  if  Pie  will  make  a  signal  I'll  know  that 
Harriet  Cotton  is  all  right,  and  that  I  have  not 
spoiled  her  beauty — that  she  is  not  likely  to  be 
marked  by  this  horrible  small-pox." 

"Compose  yourself,  Harry,  beauty  is  only  skin- 
deep  at  the  best ;  but  if  you  are  to  make  a  fuss 
about  it,  why  don't  you  think  of  your  sister's  ?  She 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS, 

may  lose  hers  in  trying  to  set  matters  straight,"  said 
Mrs.  Stubbs  reproachfully. 

"  Oh !  Pie  is  a  brick,"  said  Harry,  with  a  brother's 
easy  manner  of  taking  a  sister's  virtues  as  a  matter 
of  course,  "  and  she  would  still  be  a  brick  though 
she  were  as  plain  as  a  pike-staif." 

"  Perhaps  that  is  a  compliment  in  one  sense,"  said 
Mrs.  Stubbs  with  a  dubious  smile. 

"  Oh,  never  mind  about  senses  and  compliments  !  " 
insisted  Harry.  "  Only  do  be  quick  and  tell  me 
that  I  have  not  spoiled  Harry  Cotton's  beauty.  She 
was  so  plucky  that  day  on  the  long  road  in  the  wet, 
and  bore  me  no  malice  for  having  decoyed  her  into 
it  all.  I  wonder  if  she  will  bear  me  malice  now  to 
the  end  of  her  days."  Harry  groaned  as  he  turned 
his  face  to  the  wall,  and  was  not  pacified  until  he 
was  told  by  Dr.  Sanders  that  of  Miss  Cotton's  genteel 
sprinkling  of  small-pox,  not  one  happened  to  be  on 
her  face. 

"  Go  away,  Pie  Stubbs,"  screamed  Harriet  Cot- 
ton, trying  to  muffle  herself  up  in  the  bed-clothes, 
so  that  on  Pie's  appearance  in  the  room  she  could 
not  even  see  her  patient,  far  less  greet  her.  '  Go 
a \vay  this  moment!"  What  are  you  doing  here? 
Do  you  know  that  I  have  got  small-pox  as  well  as 
Harry  ?  How  is  he  going  on  ?  Since  you  are  here 


324  GIRL  NEIGHBORS 

you  may  as  well  tell  me  how  he  is  before  you  go. 
Now  don't  stay  another  minute ;  sniff  at  a  smelling- 
bottle  if  you  have  one.  I  notice  poor  old  Walls 
does  it  when  she  thinks  I  do  not  see  her.  Go  when 
I  bid  you !  Tell  Harry,  whatever  happens  I  for- 
give him.  He  could  not  help  it,  at  least  he  did  it 
in  ignorance,  and  I  was  as  much  to  blame  as  he  was. 
But  if  you  catch  small-pox  from  me  by  coming  and 
standing  there  when  you  know  all  about  it,  I  shall 
never  forgive  you,  Pie — never  so  long  as  I  live." 

"  Never  is  a  long  word,  Harriet,  as  my  mother 
says.  Why  should  I  not  stand  or  sit  here  ?  "  suiting 
the  action  to  the  word,  "  as  soon  as  stand  or  sit  be- 
side my  brother  at  home,  where  the  small-pox  is 
also  ?  No,  Harriet,  I  am  not  going  away — I  am 
come  to  take  turns  with  Mrs.  Walls  in  looking  after 
you  till  you  are  well  again.  Your  father  has  con- 
sented, so  have  my  father  and  mother,  and,  though 
last  not  least,  the  doctor.  So,  if  you  wish  to  get 
well  soon,  your  wisest  plan  is  to  submit,  dear,  and 
be  as  good  as  you  can.  I  am  going  to  ring  for  your 
chicken  broth ;  I  see  by  the  paper  which  the  doctor 
has  written  out  for  our  use,  that  it  is  time  you  had 
it.  And  oh !  Harriet,  I  have  been  re-vaccinated  that 
I  may  really  bear  you  and  Harry  company,  by  hav- 
ing cow-pox  while  you  have  small-pox.  1  can  tell 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  225 

you  I  mean  to  make  a  great  deal  of  my  sick  arm, 
and  to  wear  it  in  a  sling.  Fortunately  it  is  my  left 
arm,  so  I  shall  still  be  able  to  feed  myself  and  you, 
and  to  shake  up  your  pillows.  It  was  funny  to  have 
the  doctor  pricking  it,  as  if  his  lancet  had  been  a 
pin,  and  to  think  that  the  last  time  such  a  thing  was 
done  to  me,  I  was  a  baby  in  long  clothes,  like  your 
youngest  nephew." 

Harriet  fixed  her  great  eyes  on  Pie  chattering 
to  divert  her,  and  lay  for  some  time  in  silence. 
When  she  spoke  again  it  was  so  gently,  and  on 
such  a  different  topic,  that  Pie  could  hardly  re- 
strain herself  from  starting  a  little,  with  a  dis- 
mayed dread  that  her  patient,  though  she  looked 
much  less  excited  than  she  had  been  when  her 
visitor  came  in,  must  be  getting  a  little  light- 
headed. 

"  Pie,"  said  Harriet,  "  I  was  reading  a  famous  book 
on  South  Africa  lately.  It  was  all  about  a  man 
and  his  wife  and  family  who  were  settlers  and  mis- 
sionaries. It  happened  forty  or  fifty  years  ago, 
when  they  traveled  in  wagons  through  a  country 
without  roads.  The  travelers  often  met  lions  as 
well  as  unfriendly  natives.  Once  there  was  only 
one  traveler,  and  she  was  nothing  more  than  a  girl, 
with  an  escort  of  friendly  natives,  going  to  visit  a 


226  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

married  sister  some  distance  off  An  accident  be- 
fell the  wagon  by  the  way,  and  help  had  to  be 
sought.  The  girl  was  left  almost  alone,  with 
the  lions  roaring  round  her.  Do  you  know,  if 
I  had  got  my  choice,  I  would  rather  have  been 
that  girl,  listening  to  the  lions  roaring,  than 
have  come,  like  you,  into  the  jaws  of  small- 
pox?" 

"  You  must  not  talk  so  much,  Harriet,"  answered 
Pie,  coolly,  "  and  you  are  talking  great  nonsense. 
You  would  have  done  it  yourself  if  Harry  had 
been  your  brother  and  had  made  me  ill,  and  if  I 
was  left  to  servants,  while  he  had  his  mother  and 
me  if  I  was  wanted.  Do  you  know  we  were  not 
sure  at  first  whether  she  ought  not  to  have  come 
instead  of  me." 

"  Oh ! "  exclaimed  Harriet. 

"  Yes,  and  you  have  lost  a  great  deal,','  Avent  on 
Pie,  warmly.  "  My  mother  is  the  best  n«rse  in  the 
world.  You  have  no  idea  how  clever  she  is  and 
how  patient  she  can  be." 

"I  think  I  am  content  to  have  you,  Pie,"  said 
Harriet,  meekly,  "  and  I  hope  God  will  take  care  of 
you  and  make  Harry  and  me  better." 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  227 


CHAPTER  XIT. 

A    LADY    NURSE    FROM    AN   HOSPITAL. 

EVEN  Mrs.  Stubbs  came  the  length  of  granting 
that  it  was  a  comfort  under  present  circumstances 
to  have  so  many  means  of  rapid  communication 
with  the  manor  house.  For  instance,  it  was  a  great 
gain  to  her,  which  she  did  not  refuse  to  own,  to 
have  but  to  step  to  a  window,  by  night  or  by  day, 
to  find  in  an  opposite  window  the  candle  burning, 
or  the  jar  with  a  flower,  conveying  Pie's  message 
that  she  was  well,  and  every  one  and  everything  else 
doing  nicely. 

"  Poor  old  Fuller !  to  think  that  he  should  receive 
an  ovation  after  all  these  years,  and  the  many  com- 
plaints that  have  been  uttered  against  his  ingenious 
landscape-gardening !  "  said  Mr.  Stubbs. 

"  It  is  all  very  well  when  the  conditions  are  ex- 
ceptional," said  Mrs.  Stubbs  in  stout  self-defense, 
"  but  it  is  not  usual,  and  one  would  not  wish  it  to  be 
so,  that  men  should  build  their  houses  with  the  main 


228  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

purpose  of  providing  for  illness  and   accident  and 
their  consequent  demands  for  sympathy  and  aid." 

A  source  of  interest  to  all,  especially  to  Harriet 
and  Pie,  arose  in  their  isolation.  They  were  not 
likely  to  see  any  of  their  neighbors  for  a  period  of 
weeks.  At  the  same  time,  neither  the  invalids  nor 
their  friends  were  engrossed  by  any  special  anxiety, 
so  that  any  interruption  of  what  had  so  soon  become 
their  routine  was  welcome  to  the  young  people.  The 
incident  was  the  arrival  of  a  lady  nurse,  for  whom 
Mr.  Cotton  in  the  first  brunt  of  the  misfortune,  had 
written  to  a  London  hospital.  Some  unforeseen  de- 
lay had  occurred  in  her  coining,  so  that  it  was  toler- 
abty  certain  before  she  appeared  on  the  scene,  that 
unless  fresh  cases  broke  out,  there  would  be  no  great 
call  for  her  services.  Harriet  Cotton's  case  had 
been  a  slight  one  throughout,  and  had  left  no  disfig- 
urement behind  it.  Harry  Stubbs  was  recovering, 
but  he  had  paid  a  heavier  penalty  for  the  help  he 
had  been  ready  to  lend  to  the  sick  pauper.  His  face 
when  he  first  caught  sight  of  it  in  a  glass,  was  so 
red  and  swollen,  with  every  feature  so  blurred  and 
marred  that  even  his  sturdy,  youthful  philosophy 
could  not  stand  it.  He  gave  a  half  sob  in  his  weak- 
ness, and  felt  thankful  that  only  his  mother  and  Dr. 
Sanders  were  there  to  see  him,  until,  as  the  doctor 


QIHL  NEIGHBORS.  229 

pledged  himself,  Harry  should  become  less  hid- 
eous. 

"  She  is  not  like  that  ?  "  he  kept  wistfully  calling 
on  them  to  reassure  him.  "  You  would  not  deceive 
me,  mother,  Dr.  Sanders.  Harriet — Miss  Cotton  has 
not  a  face  like  mine  ? " 

Still,  in  the  possibility  of  the  strange  nurse's  hav- 
ing to  supersede  Pie  even  yet,  and  as  a  provision 
lest  the  disease  should  spread  farther,  Miss  Brandon, 
the  nurse  in  question  was  heartily  welcome. 

Harriet  and  Pie,  keeping  quarantine  together,  as 
well  as  waiting  for  Harriet's  getting  well  again, 
with  no  other  variety  in  their  lives  than  that  sup- 
plied by  the  doctor's  daily  call,  talked  and  specu- 
lated a  great  deal  about  Miss  Emily  Brandon.  She 
was  not  old.  The  matron  of  the  hospital  to  which 
she  belonged  had  thought  it  necessary  to  mention  the 
nurse's  age — twenty-four — not  above  seven  or  eight 
years  older  than  the  two  girls,  and  about  the  age  of 
Miss  Mary  Fuller  when  she  died. 

Miss  Mary  Fuller,  the  old  squire's  favorite  sister 
May,  with  her  tragic  little  story,  was  another  sub- 
ject which  had  inevitably  come  a  great  deal  on  the 
tapis  lately,  though  it  might  not  be  supposed  as 
cheerful  an  association  as  could  be  desired  for 
two  patients  recovering  from  small-pox.  Still,  as- 
sociations are  difficult  to  suppress,  and  so  much  in 


230  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  two  houses  and  in  the 
means  of  communication  between  them,  had  been 
devised  for  her  benefit,  that  naturally  the  use  to 
which  they  were  again  put,  revived  her  image  in 
the  minds  of  a  younger  generation,  and  made  it  take 
once  more  something  of  the  tender  interest  and  im- 
portance which  had  clung  to  the  woman  in  life. 
When  Dr.  Sanders  was  questioned  he  had  no  per- 
sonal recollection  of  her,  but  his  father  had  attended 
her,  and  the  younger  doctor  remembered  hearing 
the  elder  say  that  Miss  Mary  Fuller,  poor  young 
soul !  was  as  good  as  she  was  pretty  and  delicate. 
She  had  kept  up  her  spirit,  too,  wonderfully,  and 
been  the  merriest  of  the  sisters — indeed  her  spirit 
was  the  chief  thing  which  had  kept  her  alive — till 
her  sailor  lover  was  drowned,  and  her  own  death 
became  no  longer  a  question  of  years  but  of 
months. 

Harriet  had  scoffed  at  the  Fullers  the  first  time 
she  saw  Pie,  and  Harry  had  been  guilty  of  asking 
Miss  Cotton,  when  he  was  in  one  of  his  most  objec- 
tionably mannish  moods,  whether  Pie  had  been  talk- 
ing any  rot  to  her  about  these  humbuggy  old  Fullers. 
But  the  Fullers  and  their  deeds  were  mentioned 
more  respectfully  in  those  later  days.  Harriet 
even  went  so  far  as  to  say,  "  I  should  like  to  have  a 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  231 

root  of  that  lily  of  the  valley  which  the  old  squire 
planted  for  his  sister,  if  you  can  spare  it,  Pie  : "  and 
Harry  asked  his  mother  confidentially,  "Do  you 
think  Pie  would  care  if,  when  I  get  about  again, 
I  were  to  set  a  lot  of  violets  to  blow  under  her 
window  ? " 

"Pie,"  said  Harriet,  a  bright  idea  occurring  to 
her  when  she  was  able  to  sit  up  in  her  dressing- 
gown,  look  out  at  the  dahlias,  and  help  Pie  to  make 
away  with  a  dish  of  Orleans  plums,  "  do  you  think 
Miss  Brandon  can  be  anything  like  Miss  Mary  ?  I 
mean  can  there  be  any  resemblance  in  their  his- 
tories. One  can  fancy,"  went  on  Harriet,  looking 
as  shamefaced  as  if  she  were  a  boy  about  to  allude 
to  a  love  story  without  laughing  at  it,  "  that  after  a 
loss  like  that  which  killed  Miss  Mary,  a  girl  might 
turn  her  back  on  the  world  and  go  out  as  a  nurse 
— that  is,  if  she  had  health  for  the  work.  Perhaps 
if  Miss  Mary  had  been  able  to  go  out  as  a  nurse  she 
would  not  have  died.  Oh,  I  know  she  was  a  good 
daughter  and  sister,  but  I  think  the  life  of  a  single 
woman — an  old  maid — when  it  was  looked  forward 
to,  while  she  was  still  young,  must  have  appeared 
terribly  slow  and  stifling,  generations  back." 

Pie  could  not  quite  see  it,  when  the  family  and 
the  parish  would  still  remain — not  although  liar- 


232  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

riet  argued  that  marriages  and  deaths  might  remove 
the  spinster  from  the  first  place  and  reduce  her  to 
the  third  or  fourth  rank  in  the  family.  As  for  the 
parish,  it  might  not  want  her,  might  be  too  prosper- 
ous or  too  democratic,  or  it  might  have  passed  into 
the  hands  of  a  vicar  who  held  himself  more  than 
equal  to  the  situation  and  could  not  brook  the 
assistance  of  volunteers — especially  of  women — in 
his  province. 

Pie  could  not  see  it.  There  would  still  be  some 
use  for  the  maiden  aunt,  some  task  to  spare  for  her 
in  the  family.  For  her  own  part  Pie  was  sure  she 
would  have  adored  her  Aunt  Nancy.  And  the"  poor 
would  not  fail — the  Bible  had  said  so.  "  Besides, 
Harriet,"  said  Pie,  sagely,"  we  don't  know  that  Miss 
Brandon  has  turned  her  back  on  the  world." 

It  did  not  look  very  like  Miss  Brandon's  having 
turned  her  back  on  the  world  when  she  arrived  just 
in  time  for  dinner  next  day,  and,  on  being  asked  to 
join  Pie  and  Mr.  Cotton,  did  so  in  an  evening  dress, 
simple  enough,  but  neither  black  nor  constructed  on 
any  principles  which  had  the  remotest  affinity  to  a 
nun's  garments.  In  fact,  Miss  Brandon  wore  a 
cheerful  looking  frock  of  terra-cotta  color,  and  the 
young  lady  within  that  frock  was  as  bright  and 
pleasant  looking  a  young  woman  as  one  could  see. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  233 

Brightness  and  pleasantness  were  her  distinctive 
attributes,  in  addition  to  being  that  part  of  her 
nurse's  testimonials  which  she  carried  in  her  face. 
Otherwise  she  had  no  particular  claims  to  good 
looks  or  personal  distinction  of  any  kind,  though 
neither  was  she  plain  beyond  the  ordinary  standard 
of  women,  so  as  to  tempt  her  new  acquaintances  to 
suppose  that  she  had  taken  refuge  from  a  critical 
world  in  a  nursing  sisterhood.  She  was  really  not 
plain  at  all,  and  in  place  of  being  a  "  deformed 
princess,"  she  was  particularly  well  grown,  well 
made,  and  vigorous — all  the  more  so  probably 
because  she  was  as  innocent  of  a  wasp  waist  and 
high-heeled  shoes  as  Pie  was. 

After  dinner  Miss  Brandon  came  and  sat  with  the 
two  girls  in  Harriet's  room  and  gave  them  a  lively 
account  of  the  persons  and  things  which  had  amused 
her  on  her  journey  from  town.  There  was  the  spare 
elderly  lady  who  had  objected  to  the  windows  of 
the  carriage  being  opened  the  least  little  bit. 
There  was  the  stout  elderly  lady  who  had  been 
indignant  with  the  boy  who  had  smuggled  in  a 
puppy  in  his  hat  box.  There  was  the  nervous  gen- 
tleman who  was  under  the  impression  that  one  of 
the  railway  bridges  was  on  the  point  of  giving  way, 
and  wished  to  ascertain  which.  In  the  middle  o/ 


234  &niL  NEIGHBORS. 

her  stories  Emily  Brandon  stopped  and  looked  with 
laughing  eyes  into  the  puzzled  faces  of  her  young 
companions.  "  I  am  not  tiring  you — am  I  ?  "  she 
said  to  Harriet.  "  Talking  is  rather  a  weak  point 
with  me,  but  I'm  careful  when  I'm  on  duty.  For 
that  matter,  I  was  trained  in  a  hospital  where  we 
were  bound  not  to  speak  by  day  or  night,  except  to 
the  house  surgeon  on  his  round,  and  to  put  the 
necessary  questions  to  our  patients.  We  had  to  be 
an  example  to  the  ordinary  nurses,  to  keep  them 
from  gossiping — so  perfect  an  example  that  we 
dared  not  so  much  as  say  a  word  to  the  '  sister '  in 
the  next  ward,  and  it  would  have  been  all  the  same 
if  she  had  been  our  sister  literally  as  well  as  pro- 
fessionally." 

"  I  wonder  you  did  not  become  dumb ! "  said  Har- 
riet, indignantly. 

"Oh  we  had  our  meal  times  and  our  'out  days,' 
when  we  got  away  for  a  walk.  I  wish  you  had 
seen  the  good  use  we  made  of  our  opportunities, 
especially  when  each  of  us  turned  up  with  her  own 
little  tea-pot  in  her  hand  to  make  her  tea.  How  we 
did  compare  notes,  and  argue  and  laugh  some- 
times ! " 

"  Laugh  !  "  cried  Harriet,  in  a  smothered  voice, 
looking  positively  aghast ;  "  were  you  in  spirits  ? 
Had  you — had  you  the  heart  to  laugh  ? " 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  235 

As  for  Pie  she  had  been  a  little  more  behind  the 
scenes  from  her  experience  in  the  cottage  hospital. 

"  When  things  were  going  on  well  of  course  we 
had,"  said  Miss  Brandon,  composedly.  "  How  could 
we  have  gone  on  and  stood  the  fatigue  of  the  sad 
sights  if  it  were  not  so!  Yes,  certainly  there  .were 
sad  enough  sights,"  owned  Emily  Brandon,  more 
gravely.  "There  was  suffering  all  around  us,  but 
we  were  doing  our  best  to  relieve  it,  and  sometimes 
when  somebody  who  had  been  given  over  came 
round  and  made  a  remarkable  recovery,  you  have 
no  idea  what  a  weight  was  lifted  off  our  minds,  or 
how  thankful  and  proud  we  felt.  I  remember,"  she 
said,  looking  straight  before  her  at  the  reddening 
Virginian  creeper,  "  that  boy  who  had  got  the  rusty 
nail  into  his  foot  and  was  brought  into  my  ward. 
It  was  a  clearly  developed  case  of  tetanus,  and  in  his 
fits  his  body  was  bent  like  a  bow.  But  he  was 
gradually  got  out  of  them  until  he  was  at  last  dis- 
charged cured.  "Well,  that  afternoon  I  laughed  till 
I  cried  at  a  joke  of  another  sister's,  which,  between 
you  and  me,  was  not  worth  repeating." 

"  But  I  thought  you  must  all  have  had  trials  of 
your  own  before  you  dreamed  of  proposing  to  be 
nurses,"  said  Harriet,  a  little  awkwardly,  for  she 
feared  her  speech  would  sound  as  if  she  were  prying 


236  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

into  her  neighbor's  secrets — her  grown-up  neighbor's. 
"  I  mean  it  seems  so  strange  for  women  who  are  not 
old — not  very  many  years  older  than  I,  or  than  Pie 
here,  to  go  voluntarily  into  hospitals  and  infirmaries 
and  spend  their  time  with  the  sick  and  miserable. 
It  is  awfully  good  and  kind,  no  doubt,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand,  unless  at  a  great  national  crisis 
like  the  Crimean  war,  when  everybody  had  a 
patriotic  craze ;  or  when  the  nurses  have  been 
martyrs  themselves  and  have  grown  saints  under  the 
process  of  martyrdom." 

"  And  do  you  think  martyrs  and  saints  don't 
laugh  ? "  said  Emily  Brandon.  "  But  don't  you 
know  nursing  is  a  profession  now,  like  any  of  the 
other  professions  or  trades? — there  are  not  very 
many  of  them  open  to  women.  Mind  I  don't  say 
any  woman  may  try  nursing  and  hope  to  succeed  in 
it.  Even  more  than  other  callings  I  believe  it 
requires  a  peculiar  bent  to  it,  just  as  a  special  inclina- 
tion— a  vocation  if  you  will,  is  demanded  in  a  man  if 
he  would  be  a  great  divine,  physician,  lawyer,  or 
engineer.  Apart  from  that,  I  for  one  would  not 
give  much  for  a  nurse,  however  quick  her  eye,  steady 
her  hand,  and  well- informed  her  mind,  if  she  had 
not  in  addition  both  a  conscience  and  a  creed." 

"  I  never  imagined  such  a  nurse,"  said  Pie. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  237 

"  I  suppose  there  are  all  kinds,"  said  Harriet. 

"  Yes ;  and  there  are  women  as  well  as  men  who 
have  risen  after  a  stunning  blow,  and,  like  the 
Lady  of  Garaye,  dedicated  themselves  and  their 
wordly  goods  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  to  the  serv- 
ice of  God  and  man,  and  found  peace  in  the  dedi- 
cation," granted  Miss  Brandon.  "I  have  been 
acquainted  with  such  nurses.  They  have  removed 
mountains  of  difficulties  and  done  wonders,  besides  re- 
covering health  and  happiness  in  their  self-imposed 
task;  but  though  they  represent  the  popular  idea, 
I  do  not  think  that  as  a  rule  these  nurses  are  the 
most  serviceable.  Unquestionably  they  have  not 
brought  their  first  and  best  to  the  work.  They 
may  be  young  and  yet  not  young  enough  and  they 
are  certainly  without  unbroken  spirits  to  face  the 
drudgery,  and  get  no  injury  but  only  good  from  it." 

"  May  I  ask  what  made  you  be  a  nurse  ? "  inquired 
Pie,  modestly. 

"Ask  and  welcome,"  answered  Emily  Brandon 
cheerfully.  "It  is  a  question  easily  answered.  I 
have  no  secret  sorrow,  I  am  glad  to  say — no  skele- 
ton in  my  cupboard.  I  don't  look  like  a  blighted 
being — do  I?  I  am  a  doctor's  daughter,  one  of 
four  daughters ;  and  my  father  is  far  from  rich, 
though  I  am  sure  he  deserves  to  be.  We  girls  could 


238  GIRL  NEIOUBOR8. 

not  bear  to  be  a  drain  on  his  resources — particularly 
as  my  mother  is  a  hale  active  Avoman  quite  able  to 
manage  the  house ;  and  as  we  have  no  brothers 
to  share  my  father's  burden,  my  sisters  and  I  had 
to  do  something  to  help  ourselves  and  relieve  him." 

"  If  you  put  it  in  that  way,"  said  Harriet,  "  it 
does  not  seem  hard  for  women  to  have  to  work  for 
themselves." 

"  It  was  not  hard.  We  were  every  one  of  us 
healthy  and  fairly  gifted  with  wits.  I  believe  we 
all  enjoyed  working  more  or  less.  I  had  been  fond 
of  helping  my  father  in  his  surgery  whenever  lie 
would  let  me ;  and  he  had  always  said  I  had  as 
much  nerve  as  he  had,  and  that  many  women  were 
similarly  endowed,  else  it  would  be  worse  for  the 
babies  and  for  women  in  general.  It  seemed  the 
most  natural  thing  possible  for  me  to  go  to  be  a 
nurse.  To  show  you  how  natural  it  was,  out  of 
eight  lady  nurses  in  our  hospital  six  were  the  daugh- 
ters of  medical  men." 

"  But  he  could  not  have  brought  his  cases  home 
with  him — you  could  not  have  lived  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  illness  before  you  went  to  be  a  nurse, 
though  you  were  a  doctor's  daughter,"  objected 
Harriet.  "  I  have  been  told  that  doctors  make  a 
point  of  not  talking  shop  or  mentioning  sickness  at 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  239 

home,  and  that  their  wives  and  daughters  often 
know  much  less  of  any  epidemic — such  as  the  small- 
pox we  have  had  here — than  is  known  by  the  other 
families  in  the  place." 

"  They  must  be  queer  doctors  with  queer  belong- 
ings," said  Emily  Brandon,  bluntly  and  a  trifle  scorn- 
fully. "  I  think  that  is  treating  women  like  fools 
and  babies.  I  cannot  see  why  it  should  be  held  that 
it  is  more  depressing  for  a  woman  to  be  a  nurse  than 
it  is  for  a  man  to  be  a  doctor." 

"  Were  you  never  frightened,  Miss  Brandon  ?  " 
Pie  put  it  to  her  plainly.  "  I  don't  think  I  am  nerv- 
ous myself,  but  I  am  afraid  I  could  not  stand  some 
things.  To  be  sure  I  have  always  had  my  mother, 
who  says  I  am  not  fit  for  this  and  that,  and  will  not 
let  me  attempt  what  she  does  not  do  herself." 

"  She  is  quite  right,"  said  Emily,  nodding  emphat- 
ically. "  You  are  too  young.  It  would  not  be  good 
for  you.  Iso  hospital  would  admit  candidates  at 
your  age.  I  was  turned  twenty  before  I  went  to 
my  hospital ;  and  I  understood  that  then  I  was  taken 
in  as  a  favor,  because  my  father  was  a  doctor  in  some 
esteem  in  the  neighborhood." 

"  Pie  need  not  question  her  courage  when  she  has 
nursed  me  in  small-pox,"  cried  Harriet. 

"  Only   helped    to    nurse    you,"    corrected    Pie. 


240  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  And  how  could  I  think  of  myself  and  of  being 
frightened  when  there  was  my  brother,  who  had 
brought  you,  my  friend,  into  contact  with  the 
disease,  lying  ill  of  it  also  at  home  ?  I  do  not  say 
that  I  might  not,  if  you  two  had  been  strangers  to 
me,  have  shrunk  away  from  you  and  been  terrified, 
however  little  to  my  credit  such  cowardice  and  lack 
of  faith  would  have  been." 

"  And  I  do  not  say  that  I  have  never  had  any 
qualms,  especially  at  first,''  said  Emily  Brandon, 
with  honest  candor  ;  "  but  one  gets  used  to  any  ex- 
perience, and  I  knew  I  was  trying  to  do  my  duty, 
and  believed  God  would  take  care  of  me.  Then 
whenever  I  was  in  the  thick  of  work  I  was  like  a 
soldier  in  the  middle  of  a  battle,  I  had  no  time  to 
think — I  could  only  act.  But  let  me  see — what 
o'clock  is  it  ?  Half-past  ten !  It  is  high  time  you 
were  in  bed,  Miss  Cotton.  Remember  I  am  answer- 
able for  you  now ;  and  I  am  to  sleep  in  the  dressing- 
room,  and  to  send  away  Miss  Stubbs  to  get  a  good 
night's  rest  elsewhere." 

It  was  a  surprise  and  entertainment  to  the  girls 
to  see  how  the  strange  young  lady,  who  was  not  so 
much  older  than  themselves,  took  possession  of 
them  and  the  situation ;  with  what  unguessed-at 
cleverness  and  quickness  she  made  all  the  arrange- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  241 

ments.  She  rendered  everybody  and  everything 
twice  as  comfortable  as  they  had  been  before, 
while  at  the  same  time  she  instituted  precautions 
which  had  not  been  thought  of  previous  to  her 
coming.  Even  Dr.  Sanders,  in  the  busy  round 
of  his  old-fashioned  country  practice,  had  not 
taken  such  measures  into  account.  It  was  her 
business,  Emily  Brandon  said  with  gay  good 
humor. 

It  was  a  still  greater  wonder — almost  a  shock  to 
the  girls — when  Miss  Brandon,  in  pursuit  of  another 
patient,  calmly  walked  over  to  the  cottage,  made 
friends  with  Mrs.  Stubbs  on  the  spot,  and 
penetrated  to  Harry's  sick  room  as  coolly  as  Dr. 
Sanders  invaded  Harry  and  his  mother's  territory. 
There  Miss  Brandon  proceeded  to  inaugurate  pro- 
ceedings for  the  sick  man's  benefit,  to  which  Mrs. 
Stubbs,  shrewdly  recognizing  their  utility,  did  not 
object.  As  for  Hany,  after  his  first  horror  at  the 
intrusion,  he  rapidly  succumbed  as  to  an  irresistable 
course  of  bribery  and  corruption.  He  saw  in  Emily 
Brandon  an  older,  wiser  Pie,  and  understood  why 
such  as  she  were  called  "  sisters  "  in  the  hospitals. 
To  her  he  was  certainly  a  brother  —  more,  a 
younger  brother — whom  she  would  fain  solace  and 
cheer  under  his  sense  of  discomfort  and  disfigure- 
ment. 


242  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Shades  of  the  old  dainty  decorous  Miss  Fullers, 
what  would  you  have  thought  of  Miss  Brandon's 
braving  the  small-pox,  and  entering  a  young  man's 
sick  room  ? 

Everybody  liked  Emily  Brandon,  from  Dr.  San- 
ders upward  and  downward.  She  was  so  unexact- 
ing  and  obliging  !  She  had  known  and  profited  by 
discipline,  yet  she  was  not  a  mere  disciplinarian, 
and  martinet  to  rules  and  orders.  She  could  judge 
and  act  for  herself.  She  made  very  little  of  her 
capabilities,  while  all  her  near  friends,  Dr.  Sanders 
among  the  rest,  felt  more  secure,  hopeful,  and  light 
of  heart  under  her  sway.  The  girls  never  tired  of 
hearing  her  graphic  stories  of  hospital  life  and  dis- 
trict visiting.  These  stories  had  more  of  human 
nature,  heroism,  pathos,  and  humor  than  an}'  stories 
of  real  life  which  Harriet  and  Pie,  or  for  that  mat- 
ter, Harry  Stubbs,  had  ever  heard  before.  If  there 
were  also  painful  elements,  these  vanished  to  a 
great  extent  in  the  telling,  or  were  transformed  into 
a  solemn  accompaniment  like  the  deep  bass  of  a 
singer,  lending  the  strength  and  dignity  of  truth, 
however  grave  and  severe,  to  the  strain. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  243 


CHAPTEK  XIII. 

A   LADY   COOK    FROM    A   COOKING    SCHOOL. 

WHEN  the  small-pox  was  a  thing  of  the  past  and 
all  danger  of  transmitting  it  had  fled,  Miss  Brandon 
was  persuaded  to  take  a  little  holiday  at  Maidsraead- 
ows.  She  had  already  exchanged  vows  of  eternal 
friendship  with  her  three  juniors,  and  less  eager,  but 
not  less  sincere,  pledges  of  regard  with  her  seniors. 
She  had  promised  faithfully  to  come  down  the  mo- 
ment anybody  was  ill  and  nurse  him  or  her  through 
the  illness.  She  had  also  agreed,  though  with  more 
qualification,  for  she  had  been  pressed  to  give  the 
same  assurance  to  scores  of  former  patients,  to 
spend  a  portion  of  all  her  future  holidays  at  the 
manor  house  and  the  cottage. 

But  "  a  bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush," 
while — 

"  The  present  moment  is  our  ain, 
The  neist  we  never  saw " 

the  conspirators  had  Emily  Brandon  tight  in  their 


244  O1RL  NEIGHBORS. 

clutches,  and  they  were  determined  not  to  let  her 
go  until  she  should  make  a  point  of  being  idle  and 
enjoying  herself  for  at  least  a  couple  of  weeks  or 
so,  like  other  people. 

No  feint  was  wanted.  She  did  enjoy  herself  with 
the  abandonment  of  one  who  is  a  good  worker,  and 
whose  life  is  more  work  than  play,  while  the  relish 
for  the  play  is  greater  than  ever.  For  each  country 
sight  and  sound  was  a  treat  to  the  town-bred  nurse 
— abroad,  and  free  to  give  herself  up  to  the  treat. 
Emily  Brandon  played  when  she  set  about  it,  in  a 
way  which  threatened  to  distance,  not  only  Harriet, 
but  Pie  also  if  she  was  not  on  her  mettle. 

The  first  time  Harry  Stubbs  came  across  to  the 
manor  house,  as  he  said,  to  ask  Mr.  and  Miss  Cotton 
to  forgive  him,  he  had  a  vivid  consciousness  that 
Harriet  Cotton  hurried  out  of  sight  of  his  altered 
face,  and  came  back  presently  with  her  own  face 
red  as  if  she  had  been  crying.  He  said  afterward 
that  was  a  thousand  times  worse  to  bear  than  if 
she  had  refused  to  speak  to  him,  or  than  if  Mr. 
Cotton  had  shown  him  the  door.  His  sole  consola- 
tion was  that  she  looked  as  jolly  a  beauty  as  ever. 
However,  when  his  nurse  engaged  him  in  a  genuine 
tug-of-war  at  tennis,  he  forgot  his  scars  incurred  on 
another  field,  and  played  for  his  honor  as  a  tennis- 


QIRL  NEIGHBORS.  245 

player  as  if  he  were  playing  for  his  life.  Emily 
Brandon  went  down  on  her  hands  and  knees  to 
pick  mosses.  She  mounted  ladders  to  gather  fruit. 
She  fed  Pie's  poultry.  She  walked,  drove,  and 
danced,  as  well  as  played  tennis  with  all  her  heart 
in  it  for  the  moment, 

Withal  Miss  Brandon  was  still  anxious  to  be  of 
service,  and  to  turn  even  her  holiday  to  profit  where 
others  were  concerned.  She  went  with  Mr.  Cotton, 
who  was  a  poor-law  guardian,  and  inspected  the 
workhouse  and  its  infirmary,  offering  such  sugges- 
tions as  were  practicable.  She  did  her  best  for  the 
cottage  hospital  in  the  same  manner.  She  visited 
the  schools  with  Pie,  and  presented  the  pupil-teach- 
ers with  sixpenny  copies  of  "  Florence  Nightingale's 
Notes  on  Nursing,"  to  be  administered  in  small  doses 
to  the  advanced  scholars.  She  accompanied  Mrs. 
Stubbs  to  many  of  the  cottages — old  and  new — drop- 
ping such  sanitary  hints  on  the  progress  as  the  elder 
lady  and  her  cottagers  were  not  above  adopting. 
For  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  seen  what  Miss  Brandon  could 
do,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  admitted  magnanimously.  She 
had  not  hitherto  entertained  any  very  exalted  opin- 
ion of  the  merits  of  the  present  generation,  as  some 
of  her  hearers  might  be  aware,  but  she  would  think 
better  of  it  from  this  time,  since  it  had  produced  an 
Emily  Brandon. 


246  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

"  I  am  a  little  surprised  that  you  don't  have  a 
cook  from  one  of  the  cooking  schools  to  give  a  few 
lessons  to  the  village  girls,"  said  the  oracle.  "  The 
lessons  might  be  of  great  advantage  to  the  younger 
women ;  even  the  mothers  might  pick  up  a  few 
hints,"  Miss  Brandon  went  on.  "I  have  a  little  hes- 
itation in  mentioning  cooking  lessons,  bacause  my 
pretty  sister  Fanny,  who  is  engaged  to  be  married, 
is  the  professional  cook  in  our  family,  and  is  open  to 
1  orders.'  After  you  have  loaded  me  with  kindness 
it  is  hardly  fair  to  inflict  another  of  us  upon  you." 

Another  of  them !  There  could  not  be  too  many 
Emily  Brandons.  Besides,  the  idea  of  a  cooking 
school  for  the  village  was  charming  and  was  not 
to  be  lost  sight  of.  Mrs.  Stubbs  looked  on  it  with 
favor.  The  vicar  voted  for  it.  Harriet  Cotton 
never  rested  till  she  had  persuaded  her  father  to 
furnish  her  with  the  funds,  as  a  thank-offering  for 
her  recovery.  Miss  Fanny  Brandon,  with  her  cer- 
tificate from  Kensington,  was  invited  down  to  live 
as  a  visitor  alternately  at  the  manor  house  and 
the  cottage,  and  to  deliver  a  course  of  cooking  lee- 

~       7  <~3 

tures,  with  practical  illustrations,  to  members  of  all 
classes,  the  working-class  to  be  preferred,  in  one  of 
the  schoolrooms. 
Miss  Fanny  Brandon  was  a  woman  of  engage- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  247 

ments,  and  the  plan  could  not  be  put  into  execution 
till  winter,  long  after  her  sister  Emily  had  returned 
to  her  hospital. 

Then  the  reformers  found,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  said 
dryly,  that  they  had  better  have  "  left  well  alone." 
Emily  Brandon  had  been  a  great  success  as  a 
small-pox  nurse  and  public  benelactress,  but  there 
were  not  two  Emily  Brandons.  Fanny  was  a 
considerable  falling  off  from  her  sister.  Indeed,  in 
the  sharpness  of  her  disappointment  Mrs.  Stubbs 
went  so  far  as  to  say  that  she  was  astonished  and 
sorry  to  find  their  Miss  Brandon  could  take  advan- 
tage of  their  ignorance  to  send  such  a  goose  as 
her  sister  among  them  to  instruct  them  in  any- 
thing. An  acquaintance  with  Fanny  had  done  a 
good  deal  to  shake  Mrs.  Stubbs'  high  opinion  of 
Emily. 

Yet  there  was  nothing  far  amiss  with  Fanny 
Brandon.  She  was  only  a  pretty  girl  in  a  lan- 
guishing, simpering  way — the  beauty  of  her 
family,  and  apparently  spoiled  by  them  in  that 
light.  She  was  rather  juvenile  for  her  age,  since- 
she  was  a  year  older  than  Emily,  and  was  greatly 
occupied  with  her  situation  as  an  engaged  woman 
(unfortunately  the  marriage  was  not  to  take  place 
for  a  year  or  two),  much  in  the  fashion  that  Mrs. 
Parry  was  wrapped  up  in  her  baby. 


248  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Harriet  and  Pie  suffered  a  disenchantment  in 
their  turn,  though,  naturally,  there  was  more  to 
interest  them  than  there  could  be  to  interest  Mrs. 
Stubbs  in  Fanny  Brandon's  "  situation,"  including 
her  lover,  their  correspondence  and  future  prospects. 
Harriet  Cotton  had  known  her  own  sisters  when 
they  were  engaged  and  even  married,  but  this  was 
different.  They  had  all  of  them — even  Anne,  after 
the  dignified,  sensible  example  of  Laura  and  Georgie 
—treated  Harriet  as  a  schoolgirl.  They  had  kept 
their  own  counsel  and  sent  her  out  of  the  way  when 
there  was  anything  specially  interesting  to  young 
ladies  going  on ;  whereas  Miss  Fanny  Brandon 
showed  every  inclination  to  make  Harriet  and  Pie 
her  confidantes  supposing  they  felt  inclined.  If  this 
unbending  affability  and  indulgence  to  their  ignor- 
ance and  immaturity  in  a  girl  so  far  before  them  in 
experience  of  life,  proved  alluring  to  Harriet  with  her 
supposed  greater  knowlege  of  the  world,  how  fasci- 
nating was  it  not  to  Pie  in  her  simplicity  ! 

"  What  an  arrant  fool  that  Brandon  girl  must  be," 
Mrs.  Stubbs  was  forced  to  cry  in  her  exasperation 
to  Mr.  Stubbs.  "  What  nonsense  she  is  putting  into 
these  two  girls'  heads — enough  to  unfit  them  for  eve^ 
improving  pursuit  and  rational  occupation  suitable 
to  their  years !  I  declare  I  believe  she  shows  them 


GIHL  NEIGHBORS.  249 

the  man's  letters,  and  asks  their  advice  on  her  an- 
swers. I  found  Pie  devouring  a  letter,  which  I  can 
vouch  did  not  come  to  her,  by  firelight  the  other 
evening  before  dinner.  She  grew  as  red  as  the  fire 
when  I  came  in  on  her,  and  put  the  letter  hastily 
into  her  pocket,  saying  that  neither  Harry  or  any- 
body else  had  been  writing  to  her.  She  had  only 
been  asked  to  read  some  marked  passages  in  another 
person's  letter.  I  wonder  what  the  unlucky  writer 
would  say  if  he  knew  the  liberties  taken  with  his 
correspondence.  I  could  beat  that  idiot  Fanny 
Brandon,  and  I  cannot— no,  I  do  not  think  I  ever 
can — excuse  Emily  Brandon  for  allowing  us  to  have 
down  her  sister,  to  give  us  lessons  in  cooking,  for- 
sooth." 

"  My  dear,"  suggested  Mr.  Stubbs,  "  cooking 
seems  in  the  line  of  a  bride  elect.  You  know  girls 
will  marry  and  other  girls  will  look  on  till  dooms- 
day as  they  have  clone  since  the  creation." 

"  I  don't  care,  Haderezer,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  some- 
what irrelevantly  ;  "  but  what  I  shall  make  a  point 
of  is,  that  another  of  these  Miss  Brandons  does 
not  find  an  entrance  here,  with  my  will,  on 
any  pretense  whatever.  I  believe  that  a  third  girl 
has  taken  up  scientific  dressmaking,  and  goes  about 
the  world  teaching  the  trade  on  scientific  principles 


250  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

i 

to  village  dressmakers  and  their  apprentices,  and 
to  sewing-classes  in  schools.  I'll  not  be  inveigled 
into  consenting  that  she  shall  be  invited  to  come 
among  us  and  improve  our  patterns  and  our  stitch- 
ing." 

Mrs.  Stubbs  had  no  faith  left  in  the  younger 
generation  by  the  time  the  first  lecture  was  to 
come  off,  and  she  saw  Miss  Fanny  Brandon 
actually  standing  blushing  and  bridling  on  a  plat- 
form improvised  for  the  occasion.  She  wore  a 
stylish  frock  ;  a  conspicuous  locket,  which  no  doubt 
contained  a  certain  photograph  and  lock  of  hair ; 
and  a  pair  of  pink  silk  gloves.  Now,  Mrs.  Stubbs, 
while  she  regarded  platforms  for  women  with 
strongly  disapproving  eyes,  also  abhorred  pink 
gloves. 

The  aggrieved  lady  expected  nothing  less  than  a 
woeful  break-down  on  the  part  of  the  lecturer, 
which  would  render  her  and  her  supporters  tho 
laughing-stock  of  the  very  working-class  uhe  had 
been  brought  there  to  enlighten.  Yonder  they 
were,  these  pitiless  critics,  headed  by  Mrs.  Stubbs' 
own  cook,  a  picture  of  homely  shrewdness  and 
scornful  incredulity.  Whatever  was  the  fine 
young  lady,  Miss  Pie  and  Miss  Cotton's  friend 
going  to  tell  her  of  ovens  and  frying-pans  as  she 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  251 

did  not  know  afore  the  whole  young  pack  were 
born  !  As  for  the  school  girls,  they  were  giggling 
already. 

But  the  moment  a  small  portable  cooking  appara- 
tus, Miss  Fanny  Brandon's  private  property,  was 
put  on  the  platform  before  her,  and  she  drew  off  the 
offending  gloves,  a  change  came  over  the  spirit  of 
Mrs.  Stubbs  and  of  everybody  else. 

With  the  first  handling  of  a  sauce-pan  and  the 
first  instructions  uttered  in  words  few  and  well- 
chosen,  it  was  evident  to  all  present,  not  only  that 
there  would  be  no  break-down,  but  that  there  would 
be  an  entirely  creditable  lecture. 

Fanny  Brandon  was  a  born  cook  still  more  than 
she  was  a  born  beauty  and  simpleton.  Perhaps  the 
gentleman  to  whom  she  was  engaged  was  great  in 
gastronomic  tastes,  and  having  satisfied  himself  on 
that  head,  had  overlooked  any  other  deficiency.  It 
was  "  quite  pretty,"  and  greatly  relished  by  the 
audience,  to  see  how  the  young  lady's  skilled  little 
hands  boiled  potatoes,  mashed  turnips,  stewed  a 
steak,  and  beat  a  batter  pudding  without  a  single 
accident.  The  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  her 
achievements  was  as  plain  as  day  in  the  rapid  con- 
sumption of  the  savory  morsels  eagerly  eaten,  then 
and  there,  by  the  company. 


252  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

In  her  farther  lessons,  when  Fanny  Brandon  had 
pupils  in  the  admiring  village  girls  they  were  headed 
by  Harriet  Cotton  and  Pie  Stubbs,  who  worked  under 
the  chef.  The  teacher  displayed  not  only  sound  pro- 
fessional feeling,  but  great  good-nature  in  the  pleas- 
ure which  she  took  in  the  performances  of  her  staff, 
great  and  small  alike. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  half  forgave  Fanny  Brandon  for  her 
sentimental  enormities  when  she  saw  her  exhibit 
triumphantly  a  basin  of  lentil-soup  and  an  omelet, 
which  were  not  the  work  of  Harriet  Cotton  or  Pie 
Stubbs,  but  of  Amanda  Brown  and  Celestina  Black 
(the  village,  like  most  other  villages,  was  laboring 
under  a  violent  eruption  of  fine  names),  and  main- 
taining that  she  (Miss  Fanny  Brandon  of  South 
Kensington)  could  not  have  made  them  better. 

Fanny  Brandon's  visit  came  to  an  end  like  her 
sister  Emily's  without  worse  results  than  these. 
Harriet  Cotton  and  Pie  Stubbs  engaged,  subject  to 
the  consent  of  their  parents,  to  officiate  as  two  of 
Fanny's  bridesmaids  when  her  marriage  took  place. 
The  future  bridesmaids  indulged  occasionally  in 
such  unprofitable  arguments  as  to  how  often  a  gentle- 
man was  warranted  in  writing  "  dearest  "  on  one 
sheet  of  paper,  to  the  lady  to  whom  he  was  engaged, 
or  as  Fanny  Brandon  had  preferred  to  call  it,  "  be- 


OIRL  NEIGHBORS.  253 

trothed ;"  and  whether  it  was  not  foolish  of  him  to 
be  jealous  of  the  heroes  of  her  dreams,  and  to  exact 
from  her  a  solemn  promise,  which  she  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  keep,  to  dream  only  of  him. 

When  some  faint  echo  of  the  arguments  reached 
Harry  Stubbs  he  put  an  end  to  them  in  a  summary 
fashion  by  volunteering  the  statement  that  ho  could 
not  care  a  hang  for  a  woman  who  suffered  him  to 
make  such  a  jolly  great  ass  of  himself. 

But  the  cookery-school  did  not  end  with  Fanny 
Brandon's  much-needed  lessons.  Its  useful  Work 
had  considerably  impressed  various  members  of  the 
little  community,  notably  Harriet  and  Pie.  If  they 
could  not  be  amateur  nurses  they  could  be  amateur 
cooks  in  order  to  help  their  fellow-creatures.  For 
one  gain  of  Harriet  Cotton's  illness  and  close  associ- 
ation with  Pie  Stubbs,  and  of  both  the  girls  making 
the  Brandon  sisters'  acquaintance,  was  that  Harriet 
had  resolved  with  all  the  force  of  her  natural  strength 
of  character  to  renounce  the  dawdling  habits  which 
she  had  never  really  enjoyed.  As  for  Pie,  as  it  has 
been  said,  she  had  always  had  a  craze  to  be  helpful 
and  "  oosef  ul,"  like  the  child  Mary  Carpenter. 

Long  protracted  cold  weather  in  spring  in  the 
middle  of  hard  times  supplied  a  motive  and  an 
impetus  to  the  girls  in  putting  their  aspirations  into 


254  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

practice.  One  of  the  many  out  buildings  of  the 
manor  house,  which  had  served  for  a  brewery  in  the 
days  of  domestic  brewing,  was  fitted  up  as  a  kitchen, 
and  there  twice  a  week  Harriet  and  Pie  concocted 
their  dishes.  Village  girls  out  of  work  were  invited 
to  assist  and  learn  in  their  turn.  Older  women 
were  asked  to  come  and  carry  off  supplies  for  their 
hungry  children,  for  the  old  father  or  mother  sitting 
in  the  chimney-corner,  or  for  the  invalid  member  of 
the  family.  The  receivers  of  the  freely-conferred 
benefits  might  not  be  altogether  above  hearing  a 
word  in  season  even  from  two  slips  of  young  ladies, 
as  to  the  advantage  of  pot-b^-the-fire,  and  the  clear 
loss  of  subjecting  vegetables  to  but  half  or  quarter 
the  boiling  they  ought  to  get. 

Sometimes  Mrs.  Walls  or  the  Stubbs'  old  cook 
would  look  in  and  glance  askance  at  what  was 
going  on  when  their  young  ladies  played  at  cooking. 
For  though  Mrs.  Walls  honestly  wished  her  young 
mistress  to  take  the  reins  in  the  home  govern  mem, 
and  privately  backed  her  to  any  extent  in  the  oper 
ation,  the  housekeeper  was  not  prepared  for  Miss 
Harry's  going  out  of  the  way  to  cook  with  her  own 
pretty  hands  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  feeding 
"  them  handless,  shiftless  village  folks,  that  ought 
to  know  how  to  look  after  ihernselves." 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  255 

"  Fine  messes  Miss  Pie  will  make ! "  chimed  in 
Mrs.  Walls'  ally,  turning  up  her  nose  at  the  amateur 
work.  "  I'd  just  like  to  see  Master  Harry  a-eating 
of  them." 

But  the  two  experts  grew  interested  in  the 
i  \perimenters  and  their  experiments,  thawed  in 
time,  doled  out  valuable  practical  amendments  of 
what  might  be  regarded  as  journeymen's  jobs,  and 
even  condescended  to  deal,  in  their  own  persons, 
fine  finishing  touches  which  often  cleared  up  mud- 
dles and  brought  wholesome  conclusions  out  of 
crude  beginnings. 

"  I  don't  like  no  new-fangled  ways  for  the  bairns," 
grumbled  one  short-sighted  mother.  "What  was 
good  enough  for  me  should  be  good  enough  for  they. 
No,  I  bain't  oonthankful ;  I'm  glad  enough  they 
should  have  their  bite  and  sup.  But  set  'em  up 
with  their  soups  and  their  fried  'taties.  What  is 
the  world  coming  to,  I'd  like  to  hear  tell  ?  " 

"It  is  rank  pisen,"  snarled  a  cross-grained  old 
woman.  "  I  wants  my  dish  of  tea  if  I'm  to  have 
aught  of  the  saucy  young  madams'  charity.  I'm 
for  none  of  this  flummery."  But  when  she  heard  it 
was  her  own  grand-daughter  "Mamy"  who  had 
mixed  the  flummery,  the  speaker  was  willing  to  take 
it  into  consideration  and  find  it  not  so  bad  after 
all. 


256  GIRL  NEIGHBORS 

"  I  allers  holds  by  bacon — beans  and  bacon,  when 
I  can  get  them  two,  in  course,"  announced  one  old 
gentleman,  dogmatically.  Yes,  he  admitted,  he  had 
not  a  tooth  in  his  mouth,  and  the  business  of  masti- 
cation was  done  very  ineffectuall}'  by  his  gums ;  still 
he  would  have  gone  on  pinning  his  faith  to  the 
beans  and  bacon,  had  not  his  wife  tasted  the  succu- 
lent morsel  provided  as  a  substitute,  and  become  such 
a  convert  to  its  merits  that  he  had  no  choice  save  to 
test  them  for  himself,  were  it  only  to  silence  her  by 
his  overwhelming  testimony  against  her  bad  taste,  a 
testimony  which  became  conspicuous  by  its  absence. 

Upon  the  whole  the  village  of  Maidsmeadows, 
though  it  had  its  opinions,  to  which  it  was  perfectly 
entitled,  its  flat  skepticism,  its  rude  mockery  here 
and  there,  which  it  would  have  been  more  to  its 
credit  if  it  had  spared,  was  edified,  enlivened,  and 
benefited  by  Harriet  and  Pie's  honest  halting  excur- 
sions into  the  wide  field  of  national  cookery  during 
the  hard  unprosperous  spring-time. 

The  whole  thing  was  an  extension  of  the  Miss 
Fullers'  dabblings  in  their  still-room,  where  they 
made,  in  easy  and  elegant  privacy  their  washes  and 
pomatums,  sweet  waters,  prescriptions  for  coughs  and 
colds,  cuts  and  burns,  which  the  fair  practitioners 
dispensed,  as  it  were,  at  armVlength,  to  their  hum- 
ble neighbors. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  257 

Harriet's  dress  had  long  approximated  to  Pie's  in 
texture  and  hue,  nay,  sometimes  the  rich  young  lady 
was  tempted  to  exaggerate  in  her  own  dainty  per- 
son her  companion's  plain  toilet ;  but  Pie  always 
opposed  the  exaggeration  vehemently,  for  she  took 
a  far  greater  pride  and  delight  in  Harriet's  pretty 
frocks  and  hats  than  Harriet,  on  whom  they  had 
palled,  could  be  brought  to  feel. 


258  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

A   LADIES'   COLLEGE. 

WHEN  that  third  spring  had  advanced  as  far  as  a 
late  and  fine  Easter,  an  extraordinary  episode,  or 
rather  series  of  episodes,  happened  in  relation  to 
what  had  grown  to  be  a  close  alliance  between  the 
manor  house  and  the  cottage.  Harry  Stubbs,  who 
had  largely  thrown  off  the  consequences  of  his 
smart  attack  of  small-pox,  and  was  about  as  well 
favored  as  he  had  ever  promised  to  be,  was  at  home 
for  his  vacation  and  shared  in  the  excitement  of  the 
episodes.  It  did  not  render  them  less  interesting  to 
Pie  and  Harry  that  the  two  were,  for  some  good  and 
sufficient  reason,  shut  out  of  them ;  on  the  contrary, 
the  incidents  became  on  that  very  account  breath- 
lessly interesting. 

The  brother  and  sister  were  too  nearly  grown 
up  and  had  too  much  self-respect  either  to  feel  an 
inordinate  craving  to  have  secrets  of  their  own,  or 
to  entertain  a  burning  resentment  at  not  being 
taken  into  the  secrets  of  other  people.  But  while 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  259 

Harry  and  Pie  would  not  pry,  they  were  not  above 
noticing,  wondering,  comparing  notes,  and  arriving 
at  conclusions,  some  of  them  madly  erroneous,  on 
the  behavior  of  the  world  at  large. 

Through  the  summer  snow  of  the  wild  cherry 
blossoms,  falling  in  flakes  from  the  trees  nearly 
meeting  overhead,  past  the  hyacinth  border  and 
the  "  pavilions  of  stately  green  "  of  the  lily  of  the 
valley  in  the  old  bed  made  by  Squire  Fuller  under 
his  invalid  sister's  window,  came  an  elderly  gentle- 
man and  an  elderly  lady,  both  of  them  decidedly 
agitated,  asking  if  Mrs.  Stubbs  were  engaged,  and 
proposing  to  speak  alone  with  her.  The  gentleman 
was  Mr.  Cotton,  the  lady  was  a  stranger,  one  of  a 
party  staying  at  the  manor  house  whom  the 
Stubbses  had  not  seen  before. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  consented  to  be  privately  interviewed. 
Afterward  she  pursed  up  her  mouth  and  preserved 
a  mysterious  silence.  If  she  said  anything  to  the 
husband  of  her  bosom  she  certainly  made  no  more 
pointed  remark  to  her  children,  on  the  alert  to  hear 
what  she  had  to  say  on  the  subject,  than  to  moralize 
in  a  general  way,  and  tritely  for  her,  on  the  changes 
which  were  constantly  coming  to  pass  in  the  world, 
and  the  weakness,  not  to  say  the  folly,  of  men  and 
women  in  the  mass. 


260  GIRL  NKIQHBORS. 

Next  Harriet  Cotton  made  her  appearance,  march- 
ing with  her  head  erect,  and  clear,  shining  eyes 
looking  straight  before  her,  as  if  she  were  wound 
up  to  the  pitch  of  taking  her  own  fate  or  somebody 
else's  into  her  hands,  and  doing  what  she  would 
with  it.  Carefully  avoiding  an  encounter  with  her 
friends,  Pie  and  Harry,  Harriet  too,  asked  for  Mrs. 
Stubbs,  and  begged  to  see  her  for  five  minutes  by 
herself. 

This  interview  also  passed,  and  still  Mrs.  Stubbs 
vouchsafed  no  sign,  though  she  glanced  furtively  at 
her  children  and  sighed  as  if  she  had  something  on 
her  mind.  What  was  in  the  wind  ?  What  extraor- 
dinary plot  could  be  hatching,  what  momentous 
event  impending  ? 

"  Can  Harriet  have  had  an  offer?  Can  there  be 
any  idea  of  her  getting  married  ?  "  cried  Pie  under 
her  breath,  blushing  furiously  from  sympathy.  "  All 
the  other  Cottons  married  young,  I  believe,  though 
not  quite  so  young  as  Harriet  is.  I  have  not  the 
ghost  of  a  notion  who  the  gentleman  can  be,  if 
there  is  a  gentleman.  She  has  stolen  a  march  upon 
us,  and  kept  her  own  counsel  with  a  vengeance,  if  I 
am  right." 

"  Why  will  girls  talk  such  rot  ? "  cried  Harry 
angrily.  "  That  Miss  Brandon— not  my  Miss 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  261 

Brandon,  the  silly  one  I  mean  —  has  infected 
you.  There  is  nothing  save  marriages  in  your 
heads." 

"  Harry,"  protested  Pie  in  righteous  indignation, 
"  when  did  I  mention  the  word  marriage  to  you 
before  ? " 

"  1  never  said  you  did,"  Harry  turned  upon  her 
in  hardened  impenitence,  at  the  same  time  reliev- 
ing his  mind  by  advancing  from  the  porch  in  which 
the  couple  were  standing,  picking  up  a  stone  and 
aiming  it  at  a  flock  of  unoffending  sparrows.  "  But 
you  seem  to  think  that  nothing  can  occur  in  this 
workaday  world  which  is  not  connected  with  a 
marriage.  I  daresay  Mr.  Cotton  has  come  to  grief 
in  his  business — everybody  is  calling  out  about  bad 
times — or  one  of  his  married  daughters  is  dead,  or 
has  run  away  from  her  husband,  or  something,"  he 
ended  with  grand  vagueness. 

"  It  cannot  be  that  Mr.  Cotton  has  lost  money- 
much  money,"  retorted  Pie,  "  for  I  heard  him  talk- 
ing only  last  night  of  taking  a  run  to  the  Riviera. 
He  did  not  speak  of  taking  Harriet  with  him,  though 
no  doubt  he  will.  We  should  all  hear  if  any  of  the 
married  Miss  Cottons  were  dead.  Their  father  and 
sister  wouldn't  be  going  about  calling  on  anybody. 
As  to  running  away  from  their  husbands,  I  am 


262  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

surprised  at  your  saying  such  a  thing.  I  should 
as  soon  dream  of  my  mother's  running  away  from 
my  father." 

"  In  that  case  the  madre  would  have  to  run  back 
to  him  in  double-quick  time,  for  you  could  not  man- 
age two  men,  you  Pie." 

In  spite  of  Harry  Stubbs'  disdain,  there  was  a 
projected  marriage  at  the  bottom  of  the  ferment ; 
but  poor  Harriet  was  not  the  bride  to  be.  Mr. 
Cotton  had  told  Mr.  Stubbs  that  he  had  been  so 
much  put  about  during  the  past  year,  what  with 
his  own  illness,  what  with  Harriet's  attack  of  small- 
pox and  the  cause  which  led  to  it,  though  it  was 
innocent  enough,  and  he  blamed  nobody,  unless 
himself,  for  not  sooner  adopting  the  resolution 
which  he  had  now  to  announce,  he  had  determined 
to  marry  again.  The  lady  was  a  friend  of  many 
years'  standing.  He  would  provide  himself  with  a 
companion  of  his  own  age.  He  would  furnish  Harry 
since  she  had  lost  the  companionship  and  support 
of  her  elder  sisters,  with  a  proper  and  permanent 
chaperon — a  guide  in  health,  a  nurse  in  sickness— 
without  trespassing  farther  on  the  good-will  of  their 
neighbors.  He  had  brought  over  the  lady  who  had 
done  him  the  honor  to  consent  to  be  the  second 
Mrs.  Cotton,  in  order  to  introduce  her  to  Mrs. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  263 

Stubbs,  with  the  double  purpose  of  bespeaking  her 
good  offices  in  what  he  dimly  comprehended  was 
likely  to  cause  a  difficulty  with  Harriet,  and  of 
justifying  himself  by  proving,  on  personal  ob- 
servation, that  Miss  Alexa  Thorpe  was  in  every 
way  eligible  for  the  position  of  mistress  of  the 
establishment  at  the  manor  house.  He  could 
not  well  recount  her  virtues  to  her  face  ;  he  could 
only  hint  them  broadly  and  confidently  affirm 
that  time  would  indicate  the  excellence  of  his 
choice. 

The  poor  lady  who  was  thus  exhibited  and  tick- 
eted off,  was  too  much  overcome  to  do  herself 
justice.  But  so  far  as  Mrs.  Stubbs — no  mean  judge — 
could  see,  Miss  Thorpe  was  a  harmless,  well-mean- 
ing woman,  who  had  her  own  task  before  her,  the 
matron  and  arbitrator  added  grimly.  There  was 
not  merely  Harriet  Cotton  in  the  exceedingly  awk- 
ward and  trying  position  of  a  deposed  sovereign ; 
there  were  Mr.  Cotton's  married  daughters  after  the 
disagreeable  surprise  of  the  advent  of  a  step- 
mother at  this  late  date,  coming  to  pay  visits  and 
pick  holes  in  the  domestic  coat. 

"Oh,  dear!  is  that  it?"  cried  Pie  the  moment  she 
was  informed,  when  her  mother  and  she  were  sit- 
ting in  the  twilight  together  by  one  of  the  parlor 


364  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

windows.  "  "Who  would  have  thought  a  nice  kind 
man  like  Mr.  Cotton,  so  fond  of  Harriet  too,  could 
go  and  do  such  a  thing  ?  Poor,  poor  Harriet !  she 
has  been  meaning  to  manage  so  well,  and  make  her 
father  so  comfortable  and  happy  in  his  old  age !  " 

"  You  see  '  meaning '  in  itself  won't  do,  Pie,"  said 
Mrs.  Stubbs,  "  though  we  are  so  apt  to  think  it  will. 
Very  often  the  end  of  our  best  intentions  is  to  find, 
before  they  can  be  fulfilled,  that  they  are  too  late. 
Take  this  marriage  of  Mr.  Cotton's  for  instance.  If 
he  had  not  hesitated  and  doubted  about  it  all  these 
years,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  married  within  a 
decent  time  of  his  first  wife's  death,  it  would  have 
been  all  very  well — probably  the  wisest  course  he 
could  have  pursued.  As  it  is,  after  Harriet  is  nearly 
grown  up,  and  he  was  so  rash  as  to  suffer  her  to  be 
very  much  her  own  mistress,  and  to  consider  her- 
self the  mistress  of  his  house,  the  position  is 
altered.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  imagine  that 
Harriet  would  have  renounced  matrimony  on  her 
own  account  for  her  father's  sake.  In  a  year  or  two 
probably  she  would  have  left  him  in  the  lurch.  After 
all,  I  believe  it  is  on  the  whole  the  best  thing  that 
could  have  happened  for  Harriet,"  ended  Mrs. 
Stubbs  composedly. 

"  Oh,  mother,"   protested  Pie,  "  to  have  a  step- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  265 

mother  in  her  own  mother's  place ! — another  woman 
a  favored  rival  in  her  father's  confidence  and  affec- 
tion!" 

"  Don't  talk  sentimental  stuff,  child,  as  selfish  as 
it  is  lackadaisical.  Keep  your  hair  on  and  don't  go 
into  a  fit,  as  Harry  says — don't  exaggerate  and 
misrepresent  the  truth.  There,  you  spoke  of  Mr. 
Cotton  a  moment  ago  as  if  he  were  in  his  old  age. 
You  had  no  right  to  do  that.  His  daughter  had  no 
call  to  regard  him  in  such  a  light.  His  very  attack 
of  fever,  which  he  threw  off  so  easily,  might  have 
shown  you  that  he  is  a  hale  man  of  sixty,  with  ten 
or  fifteen  good  years  of  life  before  him.  A  step- 
mother ! "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Stubbs,  taking  up  another 
expressive  epithet.  "  I  have  lived  a  number  of 
years  in  the  world,  and  I  have  come  to  see  that 
almost  any  kind  of  mother — step-mother  or  mother- 
in-law — is  bad,  indeed,  if  she  is  not  better  than  no 
mother,  where  a  young  girl  is  concerned." 

"  As  a  poor  substitute,  perhaps,"  said  Pie  reluc- 
tantly. 

Her  mother  went  on  without  heeding  her. 
"  Harriet  Cotton  was  little  more  than  a  child  when 
her  own  mother  died  ;  and  as  the  latter  was  a  con- 
firmed invalid  for  years,  Harriet  can  hardly  remem- 
her  at  the  head  of  the  household;  so  that  tho 


266  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

daughter's  feelings  need  not  be  sorely  aggrieved  by 
seeing  it  under  the  rule  of  her  successor.  For  that 
matter,  I  have  been  told  the  late  Mrs.  Cotton  was  a 
weak  simple  little  woman,  like  her  daughter  Mrs. 
Parry,  and  could  never  be  said  to  rule  her  family. 
Mr.  Cotton  had  neither  the  time  nor  the  peculiar 
qualifications  to  rule  for  her,  as  Mr.  Parry  rules  for 
his  wife,  so  the  whole  Cotton  family  suffered  con- 
siderably from  the  absence  of  proper  control  and 
management." 

"  But  none  of  that  was  Harriet's  fault,"  pleaded 
Pie ;  "  and  she  has  been  trying  so  hard — so  very  hard 
lately  ;  and  then  for  this  bitter  mortification  and 
disappointment  to  fall  upon  her  !  " 

"  Depend  upon  it,  Pie,  nothing  Harriet  tried  to 
do  will  be  lost,"  said  Mrs.  Stubbs  more  gently.  "  I 
saw  it  this  very  morning  when  I  was  speaking  with 
her.  I  have  been  accustomed  to  think  and  talk 
of  her  as  a  great  deal  too  independent  and  self- 
assured  for  her  years ;  but  I  am  bound  to  tell  you — 
her  friend,  that  I  was  not  only  astonished,  I  was 
greatly  pleased  and  touched  by  the  force  she  put 
upon  herself  and  the  self-restraint  she  showed.  It 
would  have  been  admirable  in  a  woman  twice  her 
age." 

Pie  blushed  with  pride  and  pleasure  at  the  com- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS  267 

menclation,  which  she  would  have  prized  highly  for 
herself,  thus  freely  bestowed  on  Harriet. 

"  She  was  good  enough  to  tell  me  she  had  learned 
to  trust  me  ;  yet  she  did  not  say  a  single  undutiful, 
unkind,  or  unbecoming  word  where  her  father  was 
concerned  ;  she  did  not  utter  one  pert,  spiteful  criti- 
cism on  the  lady  whom  he  has  selected  for  his 
second  wife,  such  as  many  another  girl — ay,  most 
girls,  I  fear — would  have  spoken  by  the  dozen." 

"  Dear  Harriet !  "  said  Pie  warmly,  u  she  has  not 
a  particle  of  meanness  in  her.  There  is  something 
large  minded  and  large  hearted  about  her.  I  have 
long  known  it.  I  am  so  glad  you  have  found  it  out 
for  yourself,  mother." 

"  I  said,"  explained  Mrs.  Stubbs,  "  that  if  the 
match  were  for  her  father's  happiness  she  ought,  as 
a  good  daughter,  to  submit  and  make  the  best  of  it, 
and  render  everything  as  easy  as  she  could  for  him 
and  the  now  Mrs.  Cotton.  The  sooner  Harriet 
hears  the  lady  called  so,  and  gives  over  wincing,  the 
better  for  both.  I  told  her  I  was  sure — however 
little  she  might  appreciate  it  at  present — that  her 
father  had  her  interest  at  heart  in  the  act  he  was 
about  to  commit.  She  acquiesced  with  a  desperate 
quietness,  I  daresay,  but  not  as  if  she  were  merely 
echoing  my  words.  She  only  allowed  herself  to  say 


268  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

that  she  had  been  hurt  to  find  that  she  was  not 
sufficient  for  her  father,  as  he  was  for  her.  But 
when  I  reminded  her  how  much  older  he  was, 
how  many  experiences  he  had  gone  through  that 
she  could  not  share,  which  the  lady  he  was  about 
to  marry  was  at  least  old  enough  to  sympathize 
with,  she  was  perfectly  reasonable,  and  owned  the 
truth  of  what  I  said." 

"  Harriet  is  always  so  reasonable ! "  said  Pie 
ecstatically. 

Mrs.  Stubbs  shook  her  head  and  smiled  in  her 
superior  sense  and  wisdom.  "  When  I  told  her  that, 
even  supposing  her  father  had  not  married,  the  day 
would  have  come  when  she  would  either  have  left 
him  alone,  or  placed  somebody  else  before  him,  she 
was  as  incredulous  as  girls  who  don't  know  what 
lies  before  them  always  are.  But  I  am  thinking  of 
the  coming  Mrs.  Cotton.  It  is  her  own  matter,  of 
course,  still  one  cannot  help  blaming  and  pitying 
her.  There  she  is,  grown  into  an  old  maid,  with 
fixed  habits  and  opinions  as  well  as  tastes  of  her 
own,  which  she  supposes  can  be  rooted  up  in  a  day 
by  the  magic  of  a  wedding  ring  !  And  she  is  willing 
that  they  should  be  rooted  up  for  the  glory  of  wear- 
ing the  wedding  ring,  and  in  response  to  a  few  flat- 
tering words  from  an  elderly  widower  with  four 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  269 

daughters — one  of  them  still  to  marry,  only  in  her 
teens,  and  yet  a  good  deal  wiser  than  the  woman 
who  proposes  to  become  her  mother  by  marriage 
banns  and  a  parson's  blessing.  Oh,  Pie,  the  silli- 
ness of  us  women  ! " 

"  I  cannot  think  of  anybody  except  my  dear  poor 
Harriet,"  lamented  Pie. 

The  next  time  Pie  and  her  mother  talked 
together  on  the  subject  Pie  volunteered  the  valuable 
piece  of  information  that  her  brother  was  very 
angry  because  Harriet  Cotton  had  this  slight  put 
upon  her,  and  because  her  father  was  going  to  make 
such  a  fool  of  himself. 

"  Don't  you  two  make  fools  of  yourselves,"  Mrs. 
Stubbs  took  her  children  to  task.  "  Mr.  Cotton  is 
quite  justifiable  in  what  he  is  about  to  do,  and  it 
may  turn  out  an  excellent  arrangement  for  every- 
body concerned.  I  should  like  to  hear  any  person 
hint  to  Harriet  Cotton  that  her  father  was  making 
a  fool  of  himself.  She  asked  me  yesterday  what  I 
thought  of  her  going  away  for  a  time — whether 
that  would  make  it  less  trying  for  them  all,  or 
whether  it  might  not  appear  sulky  and  defiant  on 
her  part." 

"  Going  away ! "  echoed  Pie  in  fresh  consterna- 
tion. "  How  I  shall  miss  her !  But  I  suppose  it 


270  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

will  only  be  on  a  visit  to  one  of  her  sisters  for  not 
more  than  a  couple  of  months  at  the  farthest." 

"  She  does  not  talk  of  going  to  any  of  her  sisters, 
and  she  is  proposing  to  be  away  from  home  for 
longer  than  a  couple  of  months,  or  a  couple  of  years 
either." 

"  Oh  ! "  exclaimed  Pie  aghast,  and  unable  to  say  a 
word  more. 

"  She  is  thinking  of  one  of  the  colleges  for 
Avomen,"  went  on  Mrs.  Stubbs.  "  Harriet  is  under 
the  impression  that  if  she  studies  hard  throughout 
the  summer — her  father's  marriage  is  not  to  take 
place  till  autumn — she  may  gain  a  scholarship  or 
pass  an  examination  and  get  admission.  She  would 
take  the  whole  college  course  then,  and  be  little  at 
home  for  some  years  to  come.  In  fact,  she  is  pro- 
posing a  new  career  for  herself." 

"  And  do  you  think  it  would  be  for  her  good  ? " 
asked  Pie  wistfully,  feeling  herself  left  miles  behind. 
"  I  know  Harriet  is  very  clever,  and  would  distin- 
guish herself  in  whatever  she  set  herself  to  do, 
which  is  always  something.  But  then  she  is  not 
strong." 

"Dr.  Sanders  says  she  has  something  of  wiry 
elasticity  in  her  constitution,  and  may  outgrow  any 
girlish  delicacy,  especially  since  it  has  been  shown 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  271 

that  she  received  no  permanent  injury  to  her  spine 
when  her  horse  threw  her,"  replied  Mrs.  Stubbs. 
"  What  I  fear  for  her  is  the  drifting  away  from 
home  ties  and  duties.  I  don't  like  that  for  a  girl," 
the  speaker  ended  thoughtfully. 

"  And  I  should  miss  her  terribly.  For  that  mat- 
ter we  all  should,"  remarked  Pie  dolefully.  "  But 
perhaps  it  is  selfish  to  think  of  that,  and  we  must 
learn  to  do  without  her,  though  it  is  a  loss,  and 
Maidsmeadows  will  be  duller  than  I  ever  knew  it 
before.  We  are  so  near,  we  have  grown  so  intimate, 
and,  when  she  takes  a  thing  up,  she  so  throws  her- 
self into  it,  she  is  the  life  and  soul  of  it.  Still,  if  it 
is  for  Harriet's  good,  if  you  think  so,"  said  Pie 
reluctantly. 

"  Upon  the  whole  I  do  think  so,"  declared  Mrs. 
Stubbs  with  her  usual  emphasis.  "  I  believe  she  is 
right  to  go  in  the  meantime.  Her  instinct  is  correct ; 
it  is  more,  it  is  considerate  to  her  father  and  his  wife 
as  well  as  just  to  herself.  I  must  say  I  respect 
Harriet  Cotton  for  it.  But  do  you  know,  Pie," 
added  Mrs.  Stubbs  with  an  effort,  "  Harriet  does  not 
wish  to  go  alone,  naturally,  poor  girl ! — she  is  very 
anxious  that  your  father  and  I  should  consent  to 
your  accompanying  her,  and  should  make  arrange- 
ments for  that  purpose.  She  says  that  her  father 


272  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

would  be  perfectly  satisfied  in  that  case,  and  she 
would  not  ask  anything  better — I  suppose  she  means 
as  matters  now  stand." 

Pie  had  been  struck  dumb ;  at  last  she  found  a 
voice.  "  I !  "  she  faltered.  "  I  thought  my  education 
was  finished.  I  am  not  clever  enough.  You  and 
my  father  would  miss  me." 

Mrs.  Stubbs  answered  the  last  objection  first  in  a 
manner  that  warmed  Pie's  chilled  heart  and  brought 
tears  to  her  bright  young  eyes. 

"  Yes,  child,  I  am  glad,  for  all  our  sakes,  to  say 
that  we  should  miss  you  a  good  deal  more,  if  you 
can  fancy  it,  even  than  you  would  miss  your  friend 
Harriet.  But  as  you  said  just  now,  we  must  learn 
to  do  without  you,  for  a  time,  if  it  be  for  your 
good." 

"  How  can  it  be  for  my  good  to  leave  you  and  all 
I  ought  to  do  here  ? "  protested  Pie,  ready  to  break 
down. 

"  Now,  don't  be  silly  and  self  complacent,  Pie  !  " 
Her  mother  pulled  Pie  up,  feeling  it  necessary  to 
brace  both  herself  and  her  daughter  by  a  little 
judicious  sharpness.  "  You  are  not  a  baby,  and  we 
are  not  in  our  dotage  ;  you  are  not  going  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  and  the  world  will  go  on  without  you 
for  awhile  even  at  Maids  meadows.  To  tell  the 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  273 

truth,  my  dear,"  she  said,  softening  again,  "  your 
father  and  I  have  been  talking  it  over,  and  we  are 
rather  inclined  to  make  the  sacrifice ;  for  it  will  be  a 
sacrifice  on  our  part— you  need  not  doubt  that." 

"But,  mother,"  gasped  Pie,  "you  have  always 
held  that  girls  should  stay  at  home  and  find  their 
work  there." 

Mrs.  Stubbs  nodded.  "  Yes ;  I  acknowledge  I 
have  been  tempted  to  ridicule  the  recent  outcry 
about  higher  education  for  women,  ladies'  colleges, 
and  so  forth.  I  thought  it  was  taking  girls  out  of 
their  proper  path  in  life — out  of  the  round  of  nat- 
ural-obligations which  are  safest  and  sweetest  and 
surest  for  them  in  the  end.  I  don't  admit  that  I've 
been  altogether  in  the  wrong.  There  was  that 
Brandon  girl,  going  with  her  pink  gloves,  that 
would  disgust  any  sane  creature  but  platform  ladies. 
Yet  I  can't  pretend  that  she  was  unfeminine,  while 
she  was  certainly  useful  in  her  line  ;  and  her  sister 
Emily  was  what  Harry  calls  'a  trump.'  No ;  I  don't 
deny  that  I  also  learned  something  from  the  Bran- 
dons." Mrs.  Stubbs  contradicted  herself  flatly 
sooner  than  fail  in  candor.  "  And  now  that  the  op- 
portunity is  in  my  power,  I  am  not  certain  that  the 
old  situation  of  the  fox  and  the  grapes  had  not 
something  to  do  with  my  objections  to  the  higher 


274  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

education  of  women,  and  to  ladies'  colleges  all 
along.  Your  father  and  I  would  grieve  to  deprive 
you  of  any  advantage  we  could  procure  for  you. 
Something  in  that  girl  Harriet  Cotton,  with  all  her 
faults,  has  made  me  suspect  that  we  ought  not  to 
deny  a  girl,  any  more  than  a  boy,  a  wider  horizon 
than  that  of  her  home  and  her  parish — good  as 
these  are — if  she  can  command  it.  She  had  better 
try  her  wings,  at  least." 

Pie  sat  silent,  too  bewildered  and  overwhelmed 
even  to  attempt  to  thank  her  mother  because  she 
and  Pie's  father  wished  to  do  the  best  they  could 
for  their  daughter,  no  less  than  for  their  son. 

"  Besides,  Pie,"  reasoned  Mrs.  Stubbs,  "  these  are 
anything  but  prosperous  and  settled  times.  One 
never  knows  in  what  direction  reverses  and  adver- 
sity may  not  come.  It  is  doubly  one's  duty  to  cul- 
tivate every  available  resource,  and  have  it  at  hand 
if  wanted.  '  Can  do  is  easily  carried  about  with 
you.'  Even  if  the  exercise  of  any  particular  gift  is 
never  called  for  as  a  necessity,  the  more  you  know  on 
all  subjects,  Pie,  the  more  complete  your  training, 
the  better  you  will  do  whatever  falls  to  your  lot  in 
life,  though  it  may  seem  under  totally  different  con- 
ditions." 

"  But  I  am  not  clever  like  Harriet."     Pie  still 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  275 

held  back  nervously  from  the  chance  offered  her. 
"  I  should  not  be  able  to  pass  an  examination ;  I 
should  disgrace  myself,  and  you,  and  my  father,  and 
Harry." 

"  Not  at  all,  if  you  tried  your  best.  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  an  honorable  defeat  as  well  as  a  glor- 
ious victory.  Indeed  the  one  ranks  next  to  the 
other.  Nobody  is  entitled  to  expect  you  to  put  forth 
powers  which  you  do  not  possess.  Your  father  and 
I  are  not  unreasonable  tyrants,  as  Harry  can  bear 
witness.  However  who  can  tell  what  you  are  able 
to  do  till  you  try  ?  " 

"  Well,  since  you  say  so,"  said  Pie  excitedly,  giv- 
ing the  reins  to  her  imagination,  "  though  I  should 
be  awfully  sorry  to  be  much  away  from  my  father 
and  you,  and  Harry  when  he  is  here,  and  from 
Maidsmeadows,  for  the  next  two  or  three  years,  I 
should  be  very  glad  to  be  with  Harriet.  I  should 
be  just  as  -proud  as  I  was  fit  to  be  if  I  could  learn 
what  she  learned,  and  be  fully  equipped  and  equal 
to  anything  that  might  befall  us." 

"What  are  you  saying,  Pie  ?  "  inquired  her  father 
as  he  entered  the  room  and  came  and  stood  and 
looked  down  upon  her  with  shining  yet  softening 
eyes.  "  Equal  to  anything  that  even  to-morrow 
may  bring  forth !  Have  you  forgotten  Albert 


276  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Diirer's  picture  of  the  winged  woman  in  her  noble 
sorrow  over  all  the  great  learned  inventions  of  her 
day,  which  yet  could  not  prevent  one  soul  from 
sinning  or  one  heart  from  breaking?  " 

Pie  sat  rebuked.  It  was  not  often  that  her 
father  spoke  like  this,  though  all  who  knew  him 
well  were  aware — that  though  his  tongue  jibed 
sometimes,  he  was  a  man  reverent  and  devout  in  the 
depths  of  his  spirit. 

"  Let  us  be  thankful,"  he  said,  in  the  same  quiet, 
almost  matter-of-fact  tone  ;  "  there  is  a  way  which 
the  wise  king  saw  at  last,  and  a  greater  than 
Solomon  made  still  plainer,  the  straight  and  narrow 
way.  Milton's  virtuous  young  lady  and  Dryden's 
'youngest  virgin  daughter  of  the  skies'  trod  it 
'  with  Mary  and  with  Ruth.'  It  only  wants  the 
help  of  Heaven,  which  is  infinitely  better  than  all 
philosophy,  which  is  in  fact  divine  philosophy 
and  may  be  had  for  the  honest  asking,  to  enable  the 
simplest  lass  to  walk  in  without  stumbling,  like  the 
wayfaring  man  we  read  of  in  the  Bible." 

Harriet  Cotton's  half-desperate  suggestion  came 
to  pass.  Pie  had  either  modestly  underrated  her 
abilities,  or  the  entrance  examination  of  the  college 
aimed  at  was  less  "stiff"  than  she  had  expected. 
By  dint  of  studying  several  hours  a  day  all  the 
summer,  stimulated  by  Harriet's  company,  often 


OIRL  NEIOI1BOUS.  277 

bestowed  in  the  twin  arbor,  and  aided  by  the  liberal 
assistance  in  the  shape  of  efficient  teachers  which 
Mr.  Cotton  insisted  on  lavishing  on  the  candidates, 
Pie,  no  less  than  Harriet,  surmounted  with  credit 
the  entrance  test.  The  girls  were  enrolled  students 
of  the  college,  and  set  off  together  to  dwell  for  a 
season  within  its  bounds,  obey  its  rules,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, become  mistresses  of  its  treasures. 

It  was,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  said,  a  new  career 
which  was  opening  for  the  pair,  or  to  speak  more 
truly,  as  they  understood  their  privileges,  the  girls 
were  obtaining  entrance  to  an  armory  that  would 
furnish  them  with  every  variety  of  weapons,  and 
these  weapons  would  qualify  their  bearers  to  do 
double  service,  into  what  ever  field  of  the  world's 
work  they  were  called. 

The  munificence  which  had  founded  the  college 
had  been  well-nigh  royal  in  its  generosity.  Every 
provision,  not  only  for  the  health  and  comfort,  but 
for  the  highest  enjoyment  of  the  students,  had  been 
made.  They  were  summoned  to  the  diligent  exer- 
cise of  their  intellectual  faculties;  and  the  girl 
graduates  were  also  provided  with  a  glorious  abun- 
dance of  innocent,  refreshing  recreations. 

It  was  like  a  dream  of  a  palace  of  art,  far  grander 
and  more  exquisite  than  a  fairy  palace,  to  wander 


278  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

through  the  cloisters,  courts,  and  gardens,  the  libra- 
ries, picture-galleries,  and  music  rooms,  the  spacious 
corriders  and  drawing-rooms,  and  return  to  the  cozy 
private  studies  and  dainty  bedrooms.  There,  if  ever 
students  were  to  find  peace  and  strength  to  bring  their 
brain  fruit  to  perfection  and  to  sleep  soundly  after  the 
worthy  task  was  accomplished,  the  deed  could  be 
done  without  cramming  or  forcing,  without  unspar- 
ing toil  or  ungranted  play,  without  injured  physiques 
or  starved  hearts. 

Harriet  and  Pie  made  the  inspection  not  only  en- 
tranced but  humbled  by  the  extent  of  the  boon 
granted  to  them.  They  looked  with  enthusiastic 
admiration  and  respect  at  the  great  staff  of  teachers 
— some  of  them  famous  as  well  as  gifted,  and  with 
happy  interest  and  expectation  at  the  small  crowd 
of  girls  like  themselves  who  were  to  be  their  fit  and 
intimate  associates  for  years.  Then  the  couple  of 
friends  turned  to  each  other  and  thought  how  those 
at  home  would  delight  in  their  experience,  and  were 
comforted  in  the  middle  of  their  home-sickness. 

"It  will  put  Harry  on  his  mettle  for  the  honor  of 
his  old  college,"  said  Harriet. 

"  If  we  could  but  show  ourselves  not  merelv  grate- 

v      O 

ful  for  these  heaps  of  good  things,  but  deserving  of 
them,"  murmured  Pie, 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  279 

"  What  women  have  done  women  may  do,"  said 
Harriet ;  "  that  is  what  the  founder  says  to  us,  and 
we'll  do  our  possible,  as  the  French  say,  our  very 
best  possible,  sha'n't  we,  Pigeon  ?  " 

And  what  became  of  Pie  Stubbs  and  Harry  Cot- 
ton ?  Did  they  fulfill  their  dreams  in  every  respect? 
Was  the  girls'  stay  at  the  great  college  as  rich  in 
gain  as  they  had  hoped  it  would  be  ? 

Yes,  with  the  reservation  that,  like  our  stay  in 
the  school  of  life,  they  did  not  learn  some  things 
they  had  intended  to  learn,  and  they  acquired  much 
which  they  had  not  thought  of  acquiring.  Certainly 
their  career  was  honorable  and  happy,  and  they  re- 
turned to  the  world,  as  Mrs.  Stubbs  had  predicted, 
twice  as  well  equipped  for  its  work. 

Pie  was  no  longer  at  a  loss  for  illustrations  in  her 
village  classes.  Harry  Cotton  brought  back  with 
her  so  many  pursuits  into  which  she  not  merely 
dipped,  but  whose  depths  she  had  sounded  and 
would  always  delight  to  sound,  that  she  ceased  to 
mind  that  there  was  another  lady  at  the  head  of  her 
father's  establishment.  The  fact  was  a  relief  to  her 
after  she  saw  how  well  the  second  Mrs.  Cotton  was 
cut  out  for  the  post,  and  how  comfortable  and  happy 
her  husband  was  in  her  elderly  companionship.  It 
was  not  that  his  Harry  was  less  the  light  of  his 


280  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

eyes,  but  she  was  no  longer  a  burden  on  his  mind, 
and  he  was  released  from  the  obligation  of  supple- 
menting her  efforts  at  every  point.  He  was  proud 
too,  of  her  behavior  toward  her  stepmother ;  and 
that  excellent,  mild-tempered  lady  was  very  proud 
of  it  also,  as  soon  as  she  got  over  the  nervous  ap- 
prehension  with  which  she  had  looked  on  Harry  to 
begin  with.  Harry  herself  was  a  little  proud  of  the 
manner  in  which  she  had  dealt  with  a  difficult  re- 
lationship. It  needed  only  a  little  delicacy  of  health 
on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Cotton,  and  her  occasional  de- 
pendence on  her  stepdaughter's  good  offices,  to  con- 
vert the  mutual  good  feeling  into  a  sincere  attach- 
ment between  the  two. 

But  though  Harry  Cotton  grew  to  have  an  honest 
esteem  and  even  a  considerable  fondness  for  her  sup- 
planter,  there  was  not  between  them  the  close  in- 
timacy— made  up  of  strong  respect  and  familiar 
affection  that  can  afford  to  play  with  the  objects  of 
its  regard,  which  existed  between  Harry  Cotton  and 
Mrs.  Stubbs.  Why,  the  other  Harry  and  Pie  could 
not  use  more  freedom  with  the  apparently  despotic 
and  severe  mistress  of  the  cottage  than  Harry 
Cotton  could  at  all  times.  She  was  not  Harry  Cotton 
always.  There  were  two  Harry  Stulihscs,  and  yet, 
marvelous  to  relate,  there  was  somehow  never  any 
confusion  between  them. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  281 

Haderezer  the  second  was  not  outdone  by  the 
girls ;  he  took  his  degree  with  great  credit.  Then 
he  was  spurred  on  to  attempt  still  higher  academic 
flights,  but  his  vaulting  ambition  had  soared  beyond 
the  range  of  his  powers  ;  he  failed — by  no  means 
ignobly — but  still  he  failed,  and  had  to  submit 
to  having  his  wings  clipped.  It  was  then  that 
beautiful,  intellectual  Harry  Cotton  stepped  in 
and  comforted  him — not  by  teaching  him  to  fly 
higher,  for  in  truth  he  had  already  outstripped 
the  girls,  but  by  honoring  his  pluck  and  manliness 
in  defeat  as  Avell  as  in  victory. 

Pie  might  have  married  too,  but  it  was  not  the 
will  of  God.  He  who  should  have  been  her  hus- 
band was  called  to  a  higher  service.  But  her  life- 
long love  for  him  and  her  mourning  for  him,  which 
in  time  lost  all  its  bitterness,  were  not  waste  and 
loss.  They  lent  to  what  might  have  been  rectangu- 
lar and  cut  and  dry  in  Pie's  conscientious,  dutiful 
nature,  a  certain  tender  grace,  a  breath  of  the  at- 
mosphere of  another  and  a  better  world,  which  never 
left  her.  Her  happiness  and  her  sorrow  both,  taught 
her  more  forbearance  and  sympathy,  together  with 
a  goodness  which  is  beyond  rules  and  is  a  law  unto 
itself.  She  was  the  most  faithful  and  devoted  of 
daughters;  she  was  the  dear  friend  of  the  two 


282  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

Harrys  and  their  children,  who  would  have  laughed 
to  scorn  the  idea  of  eminently  sensible,  serenely 
bright,  unfailingly  helpful  Aunt  Pie  living  too  near 
or  coming  too  often  to  them. 

Is  there  any  one  who  supposes  that  the  lady- 
nurse  and  the  lady -cook  who  had  crossed  the  two 
girls'  paths  to  some  purpose  in  their  girlish  days, 
passed  clean  out  of  their  lives  and  left  no  traces  be- 
hind them  ?  Does  any  one  we  have  ever  really 
known  come  and  go  in  such  a  fashion  ?  Are  not 
our  histories  made  up  of  individual  threads  closely 
interwoven,  disapppearing  for  a  time,  possibly  be- 
cause of  the  exigencies  of  the  main  pattern,  but 
for  the  most  part  reappearing  at  the  most  unex- 
pected times  and  places  and  blending  once  more  in 
the  wonderful  human  fabric  ? 

It  might  seem  on  a  cursory  glance  that  Emily 
Brandon  and  her  sister  Fanny  did  little  for  Pie 
Stubbs  and  Harry  Cotton,  and  had  not  much  con- 
cern with  their  history.  Emily  did  not  turn  out  to 
be  the  daughter  of  a  great  nobleman,  who  took  a 
fancy  to  the  girls  and  introduced  them,  for  good 
or  evil,  to  the  higher  walks  of  society.  Neither  had 
she,  in  the  course  of  her  hospital  experiences,  be- 
come the  recipient  of  family  secrets  in  which  the 
Stubbses  and  the  Cottons  were  vitally  interested. 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  283 

Fanny  Brandon  did  not  poison  by  mistake  any 
member  of  either  of  the  families.  She  did  not  so 
convey  her  culinary  art  to  Pie  that  the  latter, 
practicing  it  for  the  benefit  of  a  dyspeptic  misan- 
throphic  millioniare,  suddenly  found  herself  invested 
by  him  with  his  enormous  fortune  in  return  for 
supplying  him  with  a  soup  which  he  could  digest 
and  a  fricassee  which  left  no  arrierepensee. 

But  in  the  time  of  Pie's  greatest  need,  when  her 
father  and  mother  were  gone  before  her  and  one  more 
who  had  belonged  to  another  generation  was  gone, 
when  the  two  Harrys  were  unavoidably  abroad,  and 
she  was  alone  and  desolate,  Emily  Brandon  came 
for  her  to  work  under  her,  at  a  pinch,  as  a  volun- 
teer in  a  great  London  hospital,  and  helped  her 
over  the  season  of  her  sorest  anguish,  by  calling 
upon  her  to  do  what  she  could  to  relieve  the  misery 
of  her  neighbors. 

Years  afterward  Mrs.  Harry  Stubbs  and  Pie 
were  at  the  seaside  together  not  a  little  anxious  and 
careworn  for  the  husband  and  brother  Harry. 
There  had  been  a  long  interval  of  bad  trade,  and 
Mr.  Cotton's  firm,  into  which  Harry  Stubbs  had 
entered,  of  which  he  was  now  one  of  the  principal 
representatives,  was  compelled  after  half  a  century 
of  prosperity  to  struggle  for  its  life  in  deep  waters, 


284  OIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

and  could  barely  keep  its  head  above  the  adverse 
flood. 

The  two  women  were  striving  to  do  their  part  in 
sparing  and  saving.  They  had  not  even  the  heart 
to  spend  what  was  justly  theirs,  and  could  not  be 
missed  in  the  general  call  for  ready  money.  At  this 
period  of  denying  themselves  lawful  pleasures  and 
cutting  down  innocent  outlay,  the  sisters — they 
always  called  themselves  sisters  in  later  years — 
chanced  to  come  across  Fanny  Brandon,  whose  love- 
letters  they  had  been  invited  to  read  in  former  days, 
at  whose  marriage  they  had  been  asked  to  act  as 
bridesmaids.  Fanny  was  in  full-blown  prosperity, 
able  to  maintain  a  cook  at  a  wage  we  shall  not  men- 
tion, who  was  not  half  such  a  native  genius  as  her 
mistress,  and  it  was  one  of  the  mistress'  few  crosses 
that  she  dared  not  contradict  that  very  dignified 
and  important  personage.  The  gentleman  who  had 
permitted  himself  to  write  ''dearest"  so  many  times 
on  one  page  of  letter-paper,  had  been  as  successful 
in  business  as  if  he  had  been  the  most  reticent  of 
men  in  caressing  terms. 

At  first  both  Harry  and  Pie  had  a  half-mortified, 
half-comical  impression  that  the  lady  cook  of  old, 
looked  askance  at  their  shabby  frocks  and  jackets, 
and  did  not  care  to  acknowledge  them  as  earlier  ac- 


GIRL  NEIGHBORS.  285 

quaintances.  But  they  did  her  great  wrong,  or  else 
she  thought  better  of  it,  for  it  is  one  thing  not  to 
have  any  mind  except  on  a  single  subject,  and 
another  to  be  heartless.  She  was  prepared  to  over- 
whelm them  with  kindness.  She  put  herself,  her 
servants,  her  carriages  at  their  disposal.  She  in- 
sisted on  introducing  them  afresh  to  her  husband, 
become  potent,  and  on  carrying  the  latter  to  call  on 
Harry  Stubbs  when  he  joined  his  womankind. 
Fagged  and  dispirited  as  Haderezer  the  second  was, 
he  bore  his  troubles  gallantly.  He  welcomed  the 
intruder  hospitably.  He  declared  that  the  rich  man 
whose  epistolary  offenses  he  had  long  ago  forgotten, 
was  not  half  a  bad  fellow ;  and  Fanny  Brandon's 
husband  on  his  part  showed  that  she  who  had  been 
so  often  dearest  as  a  maiden,  was  still  dear  as  a  wife, 
dear  enough  for  him  to  cultivate  her  friends.  He  had 
so  entirely  overcome  his  jealousy  of  the  heroes  of  her 
dreams  that  he  was  not  even  jealous  of  her  friends. 
He  made  them  his  friends  to  the  extent  of  inducing 
Harry  Stubbs  to  enter  into  business  confidences 
with  him,  when  Fanny  Brandon's  husband  was  so 
convinced  of  the  mercantile  and  personal  integrity 
of  the  son  of  one  of  her  old  employers  as  to  supply 
him  with  a  timely  loan  which  proved  the  aid,  at  a 
perilous  crisis,  that  prevented  the  good  old  firm  from. 


<<286  GIRL  NEIGHBORS. 

foundering.  Harry  Stubbs  was  not  long  in  repay- 
ing the  loan,  and  he  and  his  paid  much  more  back 
in  heartfelt  gratitude  and  lasting  good-will. 

No,  none  of  us  drift  altogether  apart  from  each 
other,  unless  sheer  selfishness  cuts  the  cables.  We 
cease  to  hang  together,  simply  because  we  are  top- 
heavy  with  our  own  affairs,  in  a  fair  way  to  be  sub- 
merged by  them,  so  we  can  neither  recall  the  absent 
nor  feel  with  the  present.  It  was  not  thus  with  Pie 
and  the  two  Harrys. 


THE   END. 


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